The Correlation Between Trauma and Addiction

Оглавление

Johanna O'Flaherty. The Correlation Between Trauma and Addiction

Отрывок из книги

Introduction

The Nature of Trauma and Co-Occurring Addiction

.....

In the traditional twelve-step-oriented philosophy of many addiction treatment programs, the message is, “Don’t drink/don’t use, go to meetings, and use the steps.” That in and of itself is essential because before we can effect any real treatment, we need the individual to be abstinent, stable, and have some sort of a foundation. However, when trauma is involved, that advice is nowhere near enough. For those with trauma, alcohol and other drug use can become a survival strategy. Obviously, it’s a strategy that doesn’t work in the long-run, but alcohol and other drugs help numb the distress, the anxiety, the depression, and the fear precipitated by trauma.

For many years, when patients presented with trauma to addiction treatment professionals, we would say, “Now is not the time to deal with the trauma. Keep it on the shelf until the patient’s abstinence is stable.” As a young therapist I would confer with my preeminent psychiatrist and psychologist colleagues and say, “Doc, that’s fine with me, but tell me, what shelf? Where is this shelf?” Meanwhile, intense trauma-based emotions are spilling out for patients who are no longer self-medicating. So, how do we work with trauma when we take away the patient’s primary coping method, when abstinence/recovery expose the pain connected with it?

.....