The connection between substance abuse and trauma has finally entered the public consciousness in a way that seems to ensure it will no longer be glossed over, overlooked, or forgotten. This is a significantly good thing, highlighting a positive shift in public understanding. That said, our work is still cut out for us. What is this connection between addiction and trauma exactly, and how can understanding it help build a more robust recovery? It is pretty standard for a person with PTSD or another form of trauma to experience intense flashbacks that could likely lead to isolation and self-medication with drugs and alcohol. This is why trauma therapy for addiction treatment is an essential part of recovery. Read on with our drug rehabs in Georgia.
What Is the Definition of Trauma?
“An emotional response to a terrible event like an accident, rape or natural disaster.” That’s the American Psychological Association’s definition of trauma. But it only scratches the surface. Perhaps words really cannot do justice to the impact that trauma can have. Childhood trauma or Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), in particular, can ultimately shape the way a person sees the world and their place in it.1 There’s no overstating the weight of the impact of something like being beaten or sexually abused as a child.
But even traumatic experiences later in life or adulthood have lasting, reverberating effects. Unfortunately, many still imagine the right approach is just to “tough it out” or keep a stiff upper lip. Why do they think this way about trauma? It may be something they were taught. Maybe they were scolded for crying as a kid, or it could be cultural. They get the sense from TV, movies, or other examples that acknowledging your feelings or their impact on you somehow shows weakness. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Trauma is:
- How the mind and spirit respond to terrible, shocking, or frightening experiences.
- Often at the root of other problems, like addiction, depression, or anxiety.
- Something that everyone experiences. No one is without trauma.
- Experienced differently by different people. There is no “wrong” experience.
- Something which we can recover and heal from with the right kind of help.
Where Do Addiction and Trauma Meet?
While it’s not fair to say that trauma alone causes addiction, trauma can undoubtedly be a significant contributing factor to addiction. Unresolved, unprocessed trauma doesn’t simply disappear. We may wish for uncomfortable feelings or unpleasant memories to disappear, but the mind doesn’t work like that. Trauma cannot be “out of sight, out of mind.”
Even if a traumatic memory is forgotten from the conscious mind or suppressed somehow, it can still impact a person’s emotional state and behavior in the present. People with trauma and addiction are often unaware there is a connection between the two. They may not even realize that the feelings they are trying to “medicate” with drugs or alcohol are products of traumatic experiences they had many years ago.
This is why trauma-informed addiction treatment is so necessary. When trauma is a factor in your addiction or mental health as a whole, it must be addressed for you to make progress. The key to long-term recovery for the trauma survivor with addiction is resolution through trauma therapy. They must address, process, and learn new tools for coping with trauma and emotions during treatment to help protect their hard-won recovery after treatment.
How trauma can help to trigger addiction:
- Addiction can happen when people don’t have healthy ways to cope with trauma and are looking for relief from symptoms like anxiety, depression, or anger.
- People with trauma often come from families where they learned to use or drink as a way to cope with uncomfortable feelings (learned behavior from family members/others).
- Sometimes addiction arises when someone misuses a prescribed medication like an anti-anxiety medicine, opioid painkillers, or ADHD medicine to cope with trauma.
Substance Abuse as a Trauma Trigger
Substance abuse can be a substantial source of trauma, with profound and long-term consequences for both individuals and others around them. Addiction and its chaotic lifestyle can expose people to dangerous circumstances and high-risk behaviors, which can result in traumatic events like sexual assault, physical violence, or serious accidents. These events can leave behind severe psychological scars and bodily injuries, adding to the trauma that has to be healed to overcome the difficulties associated with addiction entirely.
There are far-reaching consequences for substance misuse for individuals, families, and communities. Long-term emotional and psychological trauma may result from neglect, emotional abuse, and instability experienced by children raised in homes where substance misuse is common. Seeing a parent or loved one battle addiction can evoke emotions of helplessness, fear, and anxiety, which can contribute to a trauma cycle that can last for generations. Affected people may struggle to build healthy connections and manage future stress due to this unpredictable and distressing environment.
Moreover, substance addiction can have catastrophic legal and social consequences. Involvement in the criminal justice system, loss of work, and social ostracism can all cause feelings of shame, guilt, and loneliness. These encounters have the potential to strengthen the trauma and substance abuse cycle, making recovery more complex. It is essential to comprehend the dual role that substance misuse plays as both a cause and an outcome of trauma to create successful treatment and support networks. By addressing the traumatic effects of substance misuse, we can break the cycle and encourage healing and recovery.
How Are Addiction and Trauma Treated Together?
The effects of trauma remain with us, often for a lifetime. If you only remember one thing you’ve read here today, remember this: Trauma doesn’t go away if we ignore it. But we can decrease the impact and power trauma has over us with time. Facing trauma’s impact is anything but weak. It takes tremendous courage to face your trauma.
So, how do you do that? The best way is by getting treatment at a good addiction rehab with a trauma-informed curriculum, like Georgia Addiction Treatment Center. Dual-diagnosis treatment means that the program is designed to diagnose and treat mental health disorders, like anxiety, depression, or PTSD, and addiction at the same time — this is key if trauma is at the root of your addiction.
Trauma can be addressed during addiction treatment in several ways, but Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and trauma therapy are two of the most powerful. In some cases, EMDR treatment can be very helpful for trauma, too. A trauma-informed addiction treatment program like ours is designed from the ground up to recognize and address the impact of trauma. This means a patient dealing with trauma and addiction together can expect to get an individualized treatment plan that targets these specific areas of need.
Some of the many benefits of trauma therapy for addiction treatment include the following:
- It helps the individual learn to overcome fear. When people can confront anxiety and other insecurities caused by trauma, they become more empowered to overcome their addiction.
- The therapy increases self-confidence. The therapist teaches the individual how to regulate emotions under stressful conditions.
- Reduce stress and anxiety, which could potentially trigger a relapse. Trauma often causes stress, fear, and anxiety. The individual learns how to manage stress and develop coping skills, which helps to build a calmer and more confident life.
- Trauma therapy also helps patients to develop healthier, less destructive thought patterns by overcoming the fear and negativity caused by the traumatic experience.
An experienced trauma therapy professional can be of great help in addiction recovery. Once you get past the trauma that led to addiction, you can move on to live a life without the harmful thoughts that led you to substance abuse in the first place.
Trauma and Addiction Recovery in Georgia
The addiction treatment programs at our Peachtree City drug rehab are engineered to address substance abuse, trauma, and their impacts. Trauma awareness is a central feature of our program and has been ever since we developed our mental health support capabilities.
For trauma survivors contending with addiction, there is no way to separate the two issues. The only way past them is to go through them. This means treating both conditions thoroughly and simultaneously, which is precisely what we do here. With a wide selection of therapy options at our disposal, we will work to make sure you can make the most of your time with us.
All it takes is a phone call to get things moving in the right direction. Reach us at 855-952-3546 to learn more about the features of our Drug treatment programs in Georgia.
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