Treatment for Trauma and Substance Abuse

Many people start using substances to help them cope with mental illnesses or unfortunate life circumstances. For example, people that experience trauma in their lives often start abusing substances to cope. One common mental health disorder that people often develop after experiencing trauma is PTSD. PTSD and alcohol addiction often co-occur with one another. In fact, many trauma and anxiety-based disorders co-occur with substance addictions. That’s why treatment for trauma and substance abuse is necessary at rehab facilities.

What is Trauma?

According to the American Psychological Association (APA), trauma is an emotional response to a terrible event. Thus, anything or event that’s harmful or threatening can trigger a response in a person’s body and mind that becomes a trauma.

Trauma can affect a person long after he or she has experienced the traumatic event. Persistent, high levels of trauma can cause a person to develop a mental health disorder known as PTSD. PTSD is an acronym for post-traumatic stress disorder.

While PTSD may develop from persistent and high levels of trauma, not every traumatic experience is persistent and highly intense. In fact, there are different types of traumas.

Outside of acute, chronic, complex, and secondary forms of trauma are more specific types of trauma such as PTSD and childhood trauma.

PTSD

PTSD is an acronym for post-traumatic stress disorder. Post-traumatic stress disorder is characterized by extreme anxiety and the experience of flashbacks or persistent memories of one’s trauma. PTSD is also often characterized by avoidance, as many people that suffer from PTSD do what they can to avoid being in situations or places that remind them of their past trauma.

Factors that can help cause a person to develop PTSD after experiencing trauma include having already experienced trauma previously, having had experience suffering from physical pain or injury, having little to no support after experiencing trauma, experiencing other stressors at the same time that one experiences trauma, and having previously suffered from anxiety and/or depression.

As well known as the mental illness PTSD is, most people that suffer from trauma don’t get to the point in which they are experiencing PTSD afterward. In fact, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, only 6.8% of people in the United States suffer from PTSD.

Childhood Trauma

Another type of trauma that some people suffer from is childhood trauma. Because the brains of children aren’t fully developed yet, experiencing trauma while still in childhood can cause long-term adverse effects on an individual.

In fact, experiencing trauma while in childhood can cause people’s brains to alter the way that they develop from that point on. Thus, many children that experience trauma experience a heightened sense of stress and fear.

The altered brain of a person who experiences childhood trauma is also often stunted physically, mentally, and emotionally. As a result, many people that experience childhood trauma act out in immature ways well into adulthood. That is why many people that experience childhood trauma suffer from anger issues.

There are many different symptoms of trauma. These symptoms can be physical, emotional, or psychological and can range in level of intensity.

Emotional Trauma Symptoms

• Anger
• Fear
• Sadness
• Shame
• Confusion
• Numbness
• Guilt
• Hopelessness
• Irritability

Psychological Trauma Symptoms

• Anxiety
• Depression
• Trouble concentrating

Physical Trauma Symptoms

• Headaches
• Digestive issues
• Fatigue
• Racing heart
• Sweating
• Feeling jumpy
• Hyper alertness and hyperarousal

Numerous different events can cause a person to experience some form of trauma. Essentially, any event that is threatening to one’s safety and well-being can cause a person to experience trauma.

Examples of common threatening events that can cause trauma are:

• Domestic violence
• Emotional abuse
• Mental abuse
• Sexual Abuse
•  Severe car accidents
• Life-threatening illnesses
• Childhood neglect
• Repeated bullying
• Death of a loved one
• Extreme public humiliation
• Violent attacks

People that experience childhood trauma, repeated abuse or bullying, or some other harmful event while having little support in their lives are more likely to have their trauma persist to the point of developing PTSD. People who experience high levels of trauma or PTSD often abuse substances to cope.

One common substance that people with PTSD abuse to cope is alcohol. As a result, many people need to attend rehab for PTSD and alcohol addiction.

Many people that experience other forms of trauma also abuse substances to cope. Unfortunately, what these people may not realize is that abusing substances only makes symptoms of trauma worse in the long run. This is because chronic substance abuse is often associated with anxiety, irritability, depression, fatigue, etc. Thus, the best way to treat one’s trauma is to do so professionally.

Once a person that suffers from trauma and substance abuse starts to experience withdrawal symptoms when he or she minimizes or discontinues his or her substance use, he or she is dependent on the substances that he or she is using. Once such people start to develop chemical changes in their brains, they’ve developed full-fledged substance addictions. Thus, such people need to receive addiction treatment.

There are many forms of addiction and behavioral therapy that can be useful in treating trauma and substance abuse. Some of these forms of therapy are described below:

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy

Cognitive-behavioral therapy helps people change their negative thoughts, emotions, and behaviors into positive ones. Thus, people that suffer from trauma and substance abuse can use cognitive-behavioral therapy to help them alter the way that they think, feel, and ultimately behave when they’re faced with situations that remind them of their past traumas.

By learning how to think, feel, and behave in a more positive manner when faced with situations that remind them of their past traumas, people can learn how to not turn to substance abuse to cope.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy

Dialectical behavior therapy helps people accept their negative thoughts and emotions so that they don’t have the power to cause them to exhibit negative behaviors. Thus, individuals that suffer from trauma and substance abuse and receive dialectical behavior therapy will learn how to accept the negative thoughts and emotions that they have when something makes them think about their past trauma. In doing so, such people will hopefully be able to resist exhibiting the negative behavior of abusing substances to cope.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, otherwise known as EMDR therapy, is when a therapist makes a person think about his or her past trauma while simultaneously focusing on a moving object with his or her eyes. The purpose of EMDR therapy is to help redirect the negative and anxious thoughts and feelings that people typically experience when thinking about their past traumas.

EMDR therapy is a great way to treat trauma and substance abuse issues. This is because EMDR therapy can help people no longer associate anxiety with the thoughts of their past trauma. This will only make it easier for people to cope and resist using substances when the thoughts of their past traumas are triggered.