Trauma and addiction are often interlinked. Trauma can cause mental and emotional scars which can lead to addiction, and addiction can lead to dangerous behavior that can cause trauma.
Understanding how to manage both trauma and addiction is an important part of the healing process at San Diego drug treatment centers. Treating addiction without addressing the underlying condition leaves one vulnerable to relapse.
This article will explore the relationship between trauma and addiction and help you learn how to overcome both.
Trauma and Addiction – Co-occurring Disorders?
When addiction occurs alongside another mental health problem, this is known as a co-occurring disorder. The two must be treated together in order to effectively lead to recovery.
While trauma itself isn’t actually considered a mental disorder, it can lead to a number of mental conditions. These mental conditions can contribute to addiction.
Trauma occurs when the mind is overwhelmed by an experience that is too intense to handle. The result is that people with trauma may develop anxieties, fears, depressive disorders, or other conditions that relate to their traumatic experience.
These conditions, in turn, can lead to various problems in life and can lead someone down the path to addiction.
For example, someone who was traumatized by an abusive parent may develop anxiety that prevents them from fully engaging or connecting with individuals of the same gender as their abusive parent. This can prevent them from developing healthy relationships at work, school, or in their personal life.
In an effort to mask these feelings and develop the necessary relationships to have a full life, the traumatized person may use drugs or alcohol to push these feelings away.
How to Manage Trauma and Co-Occurring Disorders
Managing an addiction on your own can be very difficult. One of the best ways to make sure that you can overcome your addiction completely is to seek help from a therapist or counselor. Finding a therapist or counselor can be easy if you simply contact a rehab group.
That’s not to say that it’s impossible to do these things on your own. However, a therapist will be able to walk you through the process of recovery and support you along the way.
First, you will generally be encouraged to identify what sort of emotions and drives underlie your addiction. Once you understand what sort of need you’re trying to fulfill, or what kind of pain you’re trying to stifle, you will be able to start working at the root of your issue at San Diego drug treatment centers.
Depending on the type of approach that you take, you will often be guided through your memories and experiences to identify the cause of your traumatic experience. Certain alternative treatments, such as somatic therapy, work with the body in order to identify the physical location where trauma is stored.
In either case, the most important thing is identifying either the physical or psychological source of the trauma. Once the source has been identified, you can begin to work through it.
This may involve a number of different things. Cognitive-behavioral therapy will aim to help you understand trauma-related behaviors so you can transmute them into something more positive. Somatic coaches will help encourage you to practice a number of exercises or undergo treatment like biofeedback in order to eliminate traumatic blockages.
In either case, you’re going to want the support of loved ones and possibly mental health professionals to help guide you through the process.
In Conclusion
Trauma is a very difficult thing to overcome. Trauma often manifests as mental and physical health disorders which can contribute to addiction. While it is possible to manage trauma on your own, it’s generally much easier to do so with the assistance of a coach or therapist at San Diego drug treatment centers.
Reach out to a rehab center in order to figure out how to overcome your trauma.
