The roots of substance abuse in an individual patient can be traced to any number of sources, depending on the case history and circumstances, but for many addicts, underlying trauma can often be linked to drug and alcohol use. The two can often be closely linked, in fact, making treatment for one dependent on the other.
Understanding the role of trauma in addiction and recovery is therefore key to a successful outcome.
Experiencing a trauma is no guarantee of future drug use, but research has shown that many drug users have background traumas in their past which have contributed to their initial or continued use of illicit substances. Whether the trauma sufferer turns to drugs as an attempt to self-medicate their own trauma and its effects on their life, or just finds their trauma has made them more susceptible to drugs or alcohol in the first place, the link is demonstrable in case after case.
In such situations, drug use and underlying trauma become inextricably linked in the patient’s life. They use drugs or alcohol to suppress or ignore negative emotions and feelings from their pre-existing trauma, while drug use can, in turn, create new traumatic circumstances in their life that only further isolate their emotional well-being and bind the two issues together more than ever.
This can create treatment for either problem highly problematic. If they seek out therapy for their trauma without addressing their substance abuse, they leave a large part of their continued trauma intact, making any treatment incomplete. On the other hand, going into rehab to address their addiction without acknowledging their trauma will leave them susceptible to relapse if substance abuse has become their primary coping mechanism for their existing trauma.
To ensure you fully get to the root of both problems, therefore, you’ll need to get treatment for both problems at once.
Many rehab facilities already have a therapist on staff to deal with various issues relating to addiction treatment and they will likely be able to help treat a patient’s trauma alongside their substance abuse. It may be a longer, harder process than otherwise, but for such patients, it’s their lifeline to a life free of addiction in which they can begin to properly process their trauma and the emotions it produces.
At Good Landing Recovery, not only can patients receive treatment for trauma alongside their rehab treatment for substance abuse, they can experience such treatment with a Christian worldview and backing to further tackle and work to overcome trauma and addiction side by side.
Understanding the role of trauma in addiction and recovery can be the difference between successful treatment leading to long-lasting recovery and relapse and collapse back into the spiral of trauma and substance abuse.
Knowing how the two can interconnect and feed off one another can help the patient better tackle the two problems in tandem and find greater chances of success.
Call Good Landing today and find out how to break the cycle and get proper treatment for both.
