Addiction and Trauma Connection

Is there a relationship between an addiction and traumatic life events? Research says yes, it has shown that there is a strong relationship between addiction and traumatic life events. In fact research has shown that there is a true cause and effect relationship. As I see it this relationship had not been noticed because of the following two reasons:

1. Initially the field of addiction was isolated and not accepted by the helping professions (medicine, science, psychiatry and psychology).

2. The trauma field was not acknowledged into the mainstream helping profession until the last five years.

Over the years both fields have come into their own. The “Addiction treatment system” has finally accepted that experiencing trauma is a precursor for the development of an addiction, whether is to a substance, emotion, thought or behavior. I remember getting reports after clients who had come into my inpatient trauma treatment program from an addiction program who had stated, “When I would bring up my history of abuse or trauma in an individual or group session, afterwards I would be pulled away in private and told not to speak about abuse or trauma while in the program”. Today the relationship is accepted and addiction treatment facilities are adding trauma components to their programs as standard.

As everyone knows the aftereffect of experiencing traumatic life events is Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). In the main cluster of PTSD symptoms is “re-experiencing recollections of the traumatic event”. This means that at sometimes after the life event, the memory of the event might surface as what is called a “flashback”. So in an attempt to control and suppress the PTSD symptom of traumatic memories, a survivor turns to taking illegal or legal substances, participating in unhealthy behaviors (eating, self harm, self sabotage, and excessive exercise), engage in repetitive thoughts and/or destructive relationships.

How does this happen?

Well ask yourself the following questions? If out of nowhere, you began to experience disturbing images in your mind, thoughts or emotions and you take a drink of alcohol and they diminish, then will you take another drink? If you are feeling unexplained painful emotions and you use a substance like cocaine and the pain goes away; would you use that substance again to “kill” the pain? If you heard scary noises that you know are not happening in the here and now, and that you know were only occurring in your head and you took a substance or did a behavior or focused on a thought and the noises went away, would you then do it again? The answer to all three questions is a resounding - yes. That is human nature to seek relief.

So from the individual’s point of view with a history of traumatic experiences that began experiencing PTSD symptoms, and decided to use a substance and the symptoms reduced then a bond successfully establishes. Over time a relationship forms. The relationship grows with every episode of use and control remains in the hands of the individual. Unfortunately it is only a fleeting sense of control until reverse tolerance occurs. A false sense of security grows as well.

Conclusion

Addictions can be the direct result of attempting to stop or control the surfacing mental, emotional and/or physical pain of past traumatic experiences. Based on this viewpoint, the traumatic event is the cause and the addiction is the symptom. Traditional modes of treatment such as AA or NA, though very successful, are only treating the symptom and ignore the root cause. Therefore the helping profession should address both the symptom and the cause with a holistic approach rather than a segregated approach to achieve a great degree of success and a decreased rate of relapse.