How Trauma, Addiction, and Mental Health Issues Are Intertwined and How to Cope With Them?

The relationship between trauma and substance abuse disorder is a complex one. To understand the relationship, we have to understand what each of these terms means.

Trauma means witnessing, experiencing, or being threatened with an event or a number of events that involve serious injury, a threat to the physical integrity, or possible death. Trauma can occur after a person is exposed to or witnesses a serious accident, rape, war, natural disasters, manmade disasters, and death of a loved one. In response to these events, a person feels intense fear, guilt, shame, horror, or helplessness.

It is normal to feel overwhelmed and helpless for a few days after a tragic event. However, if this condition persists, it is termed as Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD was also called shell shock during the First World War, as people who had witnessed the war from up-close used to suffer from PTSD.

Now coming to addiction- Addiction is the dependency on certain drugs, alcohol to perform daily functioning. Addiction starts with seemingly innocent drugs and after a certain period of time, the person forms a psychological or physical dependence on drugs. The symptoms of drug addiction include loss of control, inability to quit, loss of interest in hobbies, taking risks to attain drugs, hiding the amount of drug intake, withdrawal symptoms, such as sweating, fatigue, and shaking.

Mental health issues include anxiety, depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, panic attacks, body dysmorphic disorder, borderline personality disorder, etc.

Now, what is the correlation between Trauma, Addiction, and mental health disorders?

To deal with various mental health disorders, people sometimes try to self-medicate themselves with alcohol and other recreational drugs. Addiction and mental disorders are intertwined. Trauma, on the other hand, can lead to mental disorders.

There is a serious need to address trauma as part of substance abuse treatment. Misidentified or misdiagnosed trauma-related symptoms interfere with help-seeking, hamper engagement in treatment, and lead to early dropout.

Trauma-Informed Approaches to Substance Abuse Services

Addressing trauma in substance abuse treatment involves “trauma-specific” and “trauma-informed” approaches. Trauma-informed approaches take into account the knowledge about trauma, which includes its impact, interpersonal dynamics, and paths to recovery—and incorporates the knowledge in every aspect of service delivery. The primary goal of trauma-specific services is to address the impact of trauma on people’s lives directly and to facilitate recovery and healing. Trauma treatment programs create trauma-informed environments; provide services that are sensitive and responsive to the unique needs of trauma survivors.

Mental Illnesses Which Are Associated With Addiction

People suffering from mental illnesses lack inner peace; they just want to get rid of all the thoughts that never leave their minds. Negativity engulfs them. To feel calmness, they turn to alcohol, as alcohol is widely available and is legal for people above 21 years. There is a rise in people taking other prohibited drugs to get a sense of fulfillment.

The most common mental health conditions which are associated with addiction and trauma are stated below:

Anxiety

When a person feels anxious, he feels frightened, worried, and excessively nervous. Anxiety causes physical symptoms, like restlessness, sweating, sleep disturbances, etc. People with anxiety depends on alcohol to calm their minds.

Using alcohol and drugs to treat anxiety often backfires. At first, the person might feel relaxed, but within a few hours of consumption of alcohol and drugs, the anxiety gets worse. Alcohol interferes with anxiety medications, which makes anxiety symptoms more difficult to treat. Combining anxiety medications with alcohol lead to dizziness, extreme drowsiness, slowed breathing, and even death.

Depression

People with major depression show signs of alcohol and drug abuse. Typically, alcohol abuse starts when a person is rooted in depression. To overcome the sad feelings, a person starts drinking regularly, and with the passage of time, he feels unable to control his drinking pattern. Since alcohol is a depressant, it makes depression worse. The combination of alcohol and antidepressants affect judgment, motor skill, coordination, and reaction time. People with depression have a higher tendency of becoming alcoholics, as they feel calmness for a short duration of time by drinking alcohol and depending on drugs.

Bipolar Disorder

People with bipolar disorder have bouts of happiness and sadness. Some days they feel low and depressed, while on other days they feel energetic and extremely happy. The whole experience can be disturbing, especially for those who have an undiagnosed bipolar disorder. To lift their mood, people use drugs and alcohol. But drugs and alcohol make the condition worse; instead of seeking professional help, people turn to drink heavily on the days they are feeling low.

Heavy drinking leads to alcohol dependence and alcohol abuse. When a person consumes alcohol, it disrupts the balance of neurotransmitters (chemical messengers) in the brain, which results in behavioral changes and physical changes such as intoxication, impaired coordination, drowsiness, and slurred speech. These are temporary effects, which occur when we consume too much alcohol and they go away after some hours. But when we indulge in regular drinking, long term chemical changes begin in the brain. With the passage of time, one requires a heavy intake of alcohol to feel intoxicated.

Regular drinkers start experiencing intense cravings for alcohol and suffer from withdrawal symptoms, like sweating, tremors, insomnia, anxiety when they stop drinking. A person can experience these withdrawal symptoms as soon as six hours after their last drink. To avoid these symptoms, a person starts to drink more frequently.

Treating Co-Occurring Disorders

No doubt, it is hard to live with trauma, addiction, and mental health issues. Alcohol interferes with the prescribed medications for mental health disorders. The very first step in treating co-occurring mental health conditions and alcohol involves detox. It is essential to take professional help to manage withdrawal symptoms.

After a successful detox, the person needs a rehabilitation program for treating mental health issues. Individual therapy and group therapy play an important role in treating the conditions. Medications are needed to treat co-occurring disorders. To avoid relapse, it is important to attend therapy after completing the rehabilitation program.

Conclusion

There is a deep connection between trauma, addiction, and mental health issues. Along with addiction and mental health treatment, a person requires trauma treatment to deal with the issues. With proper treatment and care, a person can come out of all these problems and live his life normally.