The Link Between Addiction and Trauma: Healing Through Therapy

Most people think that addiction is a simple issue where the addicted individual can heal once they let go of the substances.

However, it’s often not the case. The actual picture is way more complicated and often connected with major traumatic experiences.

As a result, to treat addiction in these cases, patients need to be more honest with their treatment provider. This will help them offer trauma-informed care and support to make the treatment a success.

However, if you’re curious about how addiction and trauma interlink and what therapy can help, let’s know more here.

Understanding Addiction

Addiction is the uncontrollable and compulsive desire to consume substances and feel a positive sensation. It is a complicated brain disorder where a lot of factors come into play, including personal history, genetics, and environment.

An individual can get addicted to a wide range of substances, including alcohol, cocaine, tobacco, heroin, cigarettes, crack, and so on.

Understanding Trauma

Trauma is an intensely disturbing and distressing experience for any individual. It’s so severe that it creates long-lasting emotional scars and makes them feel overwhelmed. Trauma can be of different types. For instance:

• Acute trauma is related to isolated, intensely distressing, or near-death experiences, such as natural disasters or assaults.
• Chronic trauma is a result of ongoing adverse or distressing events over a long time, such as regular child abuse, domestic violence, or neglect.
• Complex trauma happens due to multiple individual experiences or prolonged events, including child abuse, human trafficking, or war.
• Developmental traumas are ones that happen in specific growth phases only, like infancy, early childhood, middle childhood, or adolescence.
• Vicarious trauma happens to those who are exposed to others’ trauma, such as caregivers and healthcare professionals.
• Collective trauma is a traumatic event experienced in groups, such as terrorist attacks, wars, or natural disasters.

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What is the Link between Addiction and Trauma?

The International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies found that people often use substance use to cope with trauma.

Alcohol and drugs offer a certain kind of high and positive feelings, which help deal with all kinds of distressing flashbacks of the traumatic experience, emotional discomfort, and other possible symptoms.

However, addictive substances are no medicine. They push individuals with traumatic experiences into further despair.

For instance, addiction impairs cognitive functioning, leading to risky behaviours (drinking and driving) and more impulsive actions (loitering in unsafe spaces). Thus, there’s a greater exposure to potential accidents and attacks.

Impaired judgment can lead to overdosing and near-death experiences. Addiction also makes a person more likely to experience abuse, especially when they depend on others for finances and shelter. It also diminishes their chances of protecting themselves from potential dangers.

Sometimes, people may lose their rationality so badly that they indulge in criminal activities, such as theft, abusing others, or unsafe sex work out of desperation for money. Of course, there’s also a lot of social stigma, relationship strain, and isolation. All of this can lead to legal and financial issues as well.

Types of Therapy to Treat Addiction and Trauma

Trauma has a great impact on the root causes of addiction. That’s why, instead of taking a general approach, it’s best to try out trauma-informed therapies. They help target both addiction and trauma effectively by:

• Offering a physically and emotionally safe environment for everyone which makes you feel understood.
• Building a bond full of trust and transparency.
• Identifying historical, cultural, or gender-based factors behind the trauma.
• Letting you take an active part in your healing journey.

Some great trauma-informed therapy options are:

Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT)

TF-CBT is a type of common therapeutic treatment (CBT). In luxury mental health treatment centers, experienced and compassionate professionals conduct TF-CBT to help recognise and alter pessimistic thoughts and behaviours. They can address the trauma impact and can treat addiction simultaneously.

It includes exposure therapy, restructuring distorted beliefs and thoughts, and relaxation strategies. These help you cope with memories better and seek addictive substances less often.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

Another specialized therapy is EMDR, where you undergo guided eye movements while reminding yourself of distressing memories.

With EMDR, professionals help you process the worst experiences of your life and gently reduce their distressing effects and emotional intensity on your current life. Thus, you feel less overwhelmed when you’re reminded of those times.

This one is great for deep-seated trauma that’s linked with addiction.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

DBT is another type of CBT. It was initially created to address intense emotions and behaviours associated with borderline personality disorder.

In this case, it helps if you experience emotional dysregulation, which is a common impact in trauma survivors. Through DBT, experts shed light on how you can control the overwhelming emotions and cope with distress by yourself without reaching for addiction. It greatly benefits your interpersonal relationships.

Somatic Therapy

Somatic therapy involves a focus on the body, where experts guide you to let go of trauma-produced stress and tension in your body. It deals with all kinds of physical impacts of trauma.

It includes breathing exercises, grounding exercises, and movement therapy. It helps you feel more aligned with your body and process negative memories better without relapsing to substance abuse.

Trauma-Informed Yoga

Trauma-informed yoga and mindfulness help you reconnect with your body. You understand how your body acts and reacts and learn to take more well-informed and healthy steps to cope with triggers.

Group Therapy and Support Groups

While individualized professional therapy offers great help in dealing with trauma-caused addiction, group therapy and support groups have their own benefit. It shows that you’re not alone in this battle. The sense of community reduces feelings of loneliness.

In group settings, you can share your experiences and struggles and listen to others’ stories as well. You feel you belong somewhere and become motivated watching others who have come a long way.

Journaling

Journaling isn’t a one-on-one therapy you do with a therapist. Rather, they guide you on how to do it, and you do it during your spare time on your own. By channelling your emotions through writing, you can process your emotions and experiences by yourself and at your own pace.

Conclusion

Coping with trauma-induced addiction is challenging. So, seek a rehab centre with a compassionate team of experts, be upfront about your issues, and get healed more effectively!