The connection between Trauma and Addiction

In the context of addiction, trauma is an event that affects a person in a way that can been seen to have caused a substantial, long term, psychological disturbance. The key to this way of looking at trauma is its subjective nature.

Things like emotional/physical/sexual abuse, childhood neglect, divorce, bullying, rejection or physical injury can all be considered traumatic. Anything counts as long as it leaves a painful emotional mark.

While we're all pretty adept at covering up such trauma, the emotional pain often needs to be soothed and a good way to soothe it is with drugs that make it temporarily go away. The first drink of alcohol, or hit of some other drug, will often take care of that.

Some call the experience of covering up the pain of trauma with drugs "self-medication". Emotional pain can begin a search that often leads to risky behaviors and drugs. I think that self-medication can be an important factor in drug abuse and one that cannot be ignored. As the stigma of emotional pain, or emotional responding, is reduced, people's ability to deal with such pain in a healthy way should lead to a reduction in seemingly helpful, but ultimately self-destructive behaviors.

One of the most useful roles for psychotherapy for addicts is in dealing with the trauma in a healthy, constructive manner. This way the shame, guilt and other negative emotions associated with it stop guiding the person's behavior. While this is rarely enough to stop the need for self-medication by itself, it can be a very useful part of a comprehensive treatment plan. It's important to remember that once someone has entered the realm of chronic drug use, there are brain and body changes that can often trump whatever the reason for beginning drug use was.

The ignored reality about addiction is that it often has an origin in behavior and unfortunately, trauma is often that starting point.