Nearly sixty-six percent of all the people who are currently receiving drug and alcohol treatment have reported some abuse as a child. Physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, they have dealt with the pain by themselves since their trauma happened.
What Is Trauma?
The word trauma gets thrown around much more than most people pay attention. Trauma can is known as any stressful event that leads to a person becoming overwhelmed and not able to deal with it. To understand what trauma is, you will need to understand the main aspects.
If you are dealing with psychological trauma, you need to be talking about an experience that has made a person fear that they are in danger, and the person isn’t able to cope with it. Traumatic experiences are defined by how a person perceives an experience. Traumatic circumstances could be one event or something ongoing. These circumstances could have been from many years ago or even from a more recent past. These problematic experiences could also lead to a post-traumatic stress disorder, which is hard for many people to deal with by themselves.
Trauma And AddictionÂ
For people who have gone through in the past or are currently dealing with a traumatic event, they could end up turning to drugs or alcohol to numb the pain. Research has shown that adverse childhood experiences are related to the development of substance abuse. As these experiences increase, so does the potential use of more drugs and alcohol.
Traumatic experiences that have to leave a person feeling like they are always in danger and helpless often lead to these addictive behaviors. Events such as losing a loved one unexpectedly, sexual abuse by someone you know, natural disasters, physical abuse, and emotional abuse, can all lead to substance abuse. People who have gone through an event that has left them feeling helpless turn to drugs and alcohol to numb the pain and anxiety they live with every day.
Trauma In Addiction Treatment Centers
Since trauma is usually the reason for the addiction, these issues have to be dealt with in treatment centers to help the clients fully. Clients who do not deal with their trauma, they have a better chance of relapsing after they get out.
When treatment centers are including treatment for a client’s trauma, the doctors and psychologists can use different programs to help each client with their goals to become sober. When treating both aspects, clients will be less likely to self-medicate.
Trauma-Informed Substance Abuse Treatment Centers
At these treatment centers, all doctors and staff to treat the clients as if they have been through a traumatic experience. The doctors are also asked to screen for trauma during the intake process.
For trauma-informed substance abuse treatment to work correctly, policies have been reshaped to keep clients’ comfortable and to help them learn new life skills; there have to be some precautions that everyone needs to help implement.
For this program to work, safety for everyone involved has to be at the top of the list. Each member of the treatment center has to be able to provide a safe environment for the clients and themselves.
Trust has to be apparent with all the parties involved. This trust also includes family members and the clients themselves. Clients need to be able to make decisions in their treatment plan. Being able to make decisions gives them some control over their own life.
Having peer support helps clients by giving them a greater sense of their self-awareness. While the clients are learning this, they will also be able to build trust and healthy relationships. Peer support also brings positive reinforcement, which helps clients recover and stay sober.
If you have experienced a traumatic event and have turned to drugs and alcohol to numb your pain, it is time for you to receive the right kind of help to deal with the traumatic events in your life as well as recover from your substance abuse problems. A trauma-informed substance abuse treatment center is available to help you get back on your feet. Give us a call today at 844-639-8371 to see how we can help you get back on track.