Sitting on couches in the Victoria Faulkner Women's Centre early Wednesday afternoon, four women listen to prevention consultant Marlene Walde talk about both addictions and family violence.

The women then discuss the relationship between the two during the short noon-hour presentation.

The brown bag lunch event was among the numerous events being held around the city this week to mark National Addictions Awareness Week.

Walde compared the two issues as two separate circles that can sometimes be partly joined by a difficulty in managing relationships.

'They can compound each other,' she said, though she noted that in many cases, addictions don't cause violence as many people believe and as raised by one woman during the session.

The circle of addiction showed that it starts with substance use, which can relieve the person of pain or stress.

They then may increase their use of the substance, which leads to more problems with things like work or relationships.

That means people spend less time using their skills to deal with problems to the point they may lose those skills and have difficulty managing their emotions, which leads to more use, and the cycle begins again.

'You get yourself into this pattern,' Walde said, later showing a similar pattern around family violence.

Throughout her career, she noted, she's met many women dealing with abuse who have believed that if their partner stopped drinking, the violence would end.

In most of those cases, she said, there have been occasions where there's been violence when the partner wasn't drunk.

While violence can be more severe if a partner has been drinking because he or she may have less control, the violence can come out in other ways.

There are a number of similarities between people dealing with addictions and those who are abusive.

Among those commonalities are power and control issues; blaming others for their behaviour; and possible violent family backgrounds, along with poor impulse and control.

Victims of either also often end up feeling isolated, blame themselves for the situation and are unlikely to address the problem until there is a crisis.

For victims dealing with violence at home, it can be difficult to leave because of how hard it is to plan for the long term, when victims are focused primarily on how to deal with the immediate situations they encounter everyday.

'That whole unpredictability; it's got a life of its own,' Walde said.

In an interview following the discussion, she noted for many women living in smaller communities, it can be even more difficult to leave their partner with fewer resources around.

While there can be more informal supports in a smaller community, she pointed out some women have had to leave their communities to come to Kaushee's Place in Whitehorse.

'That's a big disruption, not only for them, but for the children,' she said.

The session was one of numerous events being held this week to raise awareness about addiction problems.

Patricia Beacon, a spokeswoman for the committee that organized the week, said officials are hoping people will take the time to remember and be aware of how addictions impact the community and families.

The week of events is also held to raise the issue of addictions with the community.

On Monday, National Addictions Awareness Week was launched locally with Not Cool, a short film about tobacco prevention being featured. The film was produced by youth in Teslin.

The annual candlelight ceremony that marks the start of the week was also held.

In addition to Walde's lunchtime session Wednesday, there was a workshop on resiliency at the Gold Rush Inn last evening, which Beacon noted is a new feature this year. It was held to show parents the impact that building resiliency in a child can have on later on in the child's life.

'Each year, there's different things we might do,' she said of the workshop.

A bookmark was also produced this year with a list of resources and the benefits of not using substances.

Today there will be a dinner and movie about alcoholism at the Skookum Jim Friendship Centre followed by a free family skate on Friday night and a free public swim Saturday. Both events will be held at the Canada Games Centre.

Beacon noted the swim and skating events are held to demonstrate healthy substance-free ways to live.

'There's many ways to have fun, there's many ways to be healthy,' she said in an interview this morning.

The events have been organized by the local committee for National Addictions Awareness Week.

The committee is made up of representatives from Blood Ties Four Directions, the territorial alcohol and drug services branch, the Yukon Liquor Corp., the RCMP, the territory's health promotion unit, the Council of Yukon First Nations, the pharmacists association, Yukon College, the Blue Feather Youth Centre and a community member.