Dealing With Addiction Trauma

Dealing with addiction trauma is never easy. It’s a long term process that can take years. The mistake many make in early recovery is trying to do too much at one time. First, the person needs to learn how to live comfortably without alcohol, cocaine, opiates or whatever the drug of choice may be. But, if recovery were easy, after the drug is out of the body, that should be the end of it. Just tell yourself – I’ll never do that again – and then go on with your business.

It’s not like that. Addiction causes trauma, and the addict reinforces drug use to deal with the trauma on a regular basis over a long period of time. The trauma increases, and so does the drug use. Trauma caused by addiction can create guilt and shame, anger, fear, depression, free floating anxiety, etc. The addict feels terrible without the drug, so the mind says use the drug and the bad feelings will go away — this becomes ingrained. The bad feelings don’t really go away they just become buried to pop up in destructive ways.

In recovery the consequences of trauma can be overwhelming if they aren’t dealt with. Recovery is not just about staying away from drugs, it’s about self improvement that creates a desire to keep improving with the knowledge that drug use will damage all the good work done so far. Recovery is about turning around and facing the trauma of addiction, but dealing with it as you are ready, not all at one time. It’s ok to go at a pace that’s not overwhelming. The addict in recovery learns they have a long life ahead, hopefully, and recovery is about making progress, not becoming perfect.

There’s no need for the recovering addict to be hard on herself. Yes, recovery is about taking responsibility, but not beating yourself up. What’s done has been done. If the addict can change what’s been done, then good, change it, but if they can’t, they have to accept it and try to not to the same things again. Peace of mind is a great achievement – it has to be gained through acts of self-improvement. Once you gain it, you don’t want to lose it.