Trauma Therapy for Addiction Treatment Explained
When an individual engages in self-destructive behaviour, more specifically, the abuse of addictive substances, they may do so due to a wide variety of reasons. Most commonly, they are doing it in order to cope with a traumatic event in their past.
Our expert therapists understand how trauma can affect the human body and to what extent it can be a detriment to everyday life. Specialised in handling inpatients, our medical professionals create tailor-made, bespoke individual forms of trauma therapy, all as a part of a larger rehabilitation treatment.
More specifically, our mission is to pinpoint the source of your addictive behaviour, help you manage it, and find a way to heal from your past traumatic experiences. By identifying what initially triggered your addictive behaviour and following your healing progress closely, we aim to assist you in overcoming your addiction.
What is Trauma?
When an event occurs in your life that has an extremely negative impact on your physical or mental well-being, it can cause long-term damage and increase your levels of fear or anxiety. Your response to that event is what experts call trauma. Broadly speaking, you might be experiencing it if you display the following signs:
- Intrusive memories
- Intrusive flashbacks
- Anxiety
- Panic attacks
- Nightmares
- Insomnia or other sleep-related problems
- Depression
- Self-loathing, shame, or feelings of general inadequacy
Any number of traumatic experiences can cause you to display addictive traits. For instance, you may have experienced intense abuse, be it physical, sexual, or emotional. Furthermore, different accidents or natural disasters can also lead to that type of psychophysical response.
Family-related trauma is also common, involving violence towards children, divorce, or the deaths of loved ones. In addition, if a family member already has a history of substance abuse, the chances are that you’ll try to emulate that, subconsciously or otherwise.
What is Trauma Therapy?
In order to heal from either physical or psychological trauma, a bespoke form of therapy is required. Furthermore, it needs to be administered by experts in a monitored, safe health facility.
Trauma therapy, in particular, aims to help individuals to better understand their trauma and illustrate how much of a detriment it is to their daily life and their health overall. Through this form of therapy, you’ll be capable of managing negative feelings and emotions evoked whenever you recall the traumatic events from your past. The operative goal is to deal with these emotions using methods and mechanisms that do not involve harmful substance intake.
When experts initiate therapy with a patient, they make sure it’s undertaken within an environment where individuals feel safe and secure. At AddictionRehab we provide a nurturing space, where you can openly discuss any difficult emotions and start to put some distance between yourself and your trauma. Through this therapeutic process, you are offered a supportive path toward healing, increasing your ability to overcome addiction to harmful substances.
What lies behind us and what lies before us are
tiny matters compared to what lies within us
How Do Trauma Therapy Programmes Work?
After admitting an individual, we incorporate a method known as post—induction therapy, or PIT for short. According to the experts on addictive behaviour, experiences that cause negative emotions leave a strong impression on individuals who went through traumatic events. Some of those emotions include guilt, fear, sadness, anger, shame, mistrust, self-blame, hatred and self-loathing.
Understanding the impact of past traumatic experiences and emotions on an individual is crucial for their recovery. Once you reach that level of understanding, you will be prepared to take more active steps in managing your life, finding purpose and, ultimately, doing away with addiction or general addictive behaviour.
How Does Trauma Therapy for Addiction Work?
Experts at our facility will work hard to help you achieve six specific goals:
- Identification
Our experts will assist in uncovering specific events that trigger addictive tendencies, helping you recognise the root causes of your addiction.
- Understanding emotions
Through therapy, you will learn to identify the range of emotions associated with your trauma, including their frequency and intensity.
- Present impact
You will gain an understanding of how your trauma currently affects you, focusing on its direct impact on your daily life and well-being.
- Mitigation techniques
Our team will guide you in discussing, trying, and maintaining techniques to manage and reduce your specific negative emotions and thoughts.
- Confidence building
You will learn how to channel your emotions constructively, expressing them in healthy ways without resorting to addictive behaviours.
- Tailored coping strategies
Finally, we will develop a set of coping strategies customised to your needs, helping you focus on recovery and preventing relapse.
Our custom, tailored rehab therapy programmes must meet your specific needs on several key levels, including:
- Physical
- Social
- Emotional
- Spiritual
- Psychological
We employ a diverse team of skilled therapists and counsellors specialised in the field of trauma therapy. To effectively support patients, our experts utilise several types of evidence-based, effective trauma therapy types:
- Individual therapy
- Group therapy
- Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT)
- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
How Does Trauma Therapy for Addiction Work in Practice?
Our therapy programme is carefully structured into four main stages, offering our patients a guided path towards healing:
- Rapport building
- The debriefing stage
- Impact statement crafting
- Direct exposure
Rapport building: Get to know your therapist (and vice versa)
Many people who have endured some form of trauma share a common trait: finding it incredibly difficult to discuss their experiences. For trauma survivors, trust, even in close relationships, often becomes a challenging hurdle.
That’s one of the major reasons behind rapport building. Having the freedom to express your thoughts and emotions openly to your therapist within a supportive environment, free from threat, is vital to the recovery process. During this initial stage, you and your therapist will get to know one another, gradually establishing a basis of trust.
A foundation of trust
The process of building trust and rapport is lengthy, but essential. Both you and your assigned therapist are required to be well-informed about one another’s intentions during therapy. Once that is established, it creates a safe space for you to open up about your experiences. Reliving past traumas can be emotionally challenging, but in order to move forward and heal, you have to be prepared to discuss your past experience.
In order to gain a comprehensive understanding of your addiction, the therapist will apply a technique known as imaginal exposure, asking you to recount past events in detail to the best of your ability. Talking about the traumatic experience will help you process it and understand its impact on your behaviour and addiction. This also offers valuable insights to your therapist, helping them tailor guidance for your healing journey.
Impact statement crafting: Laying out concrete facts
“Putting pen to paper” – at this stage, the therapist will guide you to write an impact statement, wherein you will clearly designate what is to blame for your addiction. In this statement, you will be asked to address the following questions, in vivid detail:
- What event led or played a significant role in your addiction?
- Why do you believe that event happened to you?
- What kind of impact did that event have on your life, your health, and your overall sense of self?
By truthfully answering these questions and writing them down, you can begin to alleviate some of the emotional burden that has accumulated over time.
Direct exposure: Recognising the initial traumatic incident
With your impact statement written down, it’s time to undergo the final stage, i.e., reading that letter out loud. Your therapist will advise you to read the letter as if you’re directly speaking to the cause of your addictive behaviour.
Reading the impact statements is always done in a group setting, with other trauma therapy patients present. That way, there’s a good basis for mutual support and progress.
One of the major reasons for employing this stage is to give some power back to the individuals suffering from addiction problems. By verbally recognising that you were not directly responsible for the traumatic event, you can progress towards additional treatment that will help manage and potentially reduce your addictive behaviour.
On Leaving Rehab, Can Trauma Therapy Help Any Further?
Trauma therapy involves spending time at a special facility, where you are surrounded by experts such as therapists, counsellors, and other professionals. However, a significant part of this treatment occurs at home, away from the designated trauma centre.
Departing a controlled and safe environment can be a highly challenging transition, especially when you’re surrounded by potential triggers in everyday life. At AddictionRehab we recognise these challenges!
Therefore, a major component of our aftercare programme includes providing complimentary weekly group therapy sessions over one year. Experts consider these meetings a vital part of long-term trauma recovery. By employing these methods, we provide each patient with ongoing support as they reintegrate into their daily lives and continue on their path to recovery.
FREE Addiction Assessment
If your or a loved one are struggling with addiction, we understand the challenges you’re facing and we’re here to offer compassionate help.
Our highly trained advisers are available to speak to you right away, simply call 0808 252 3379 today.
We can discuss your concerns in complete confidence, explore the options for treatment, and help you to understand what will work best for you.
We’ll also help you to book your free addiction assessment there and then, with appointments usually available within only a few days.
We understand that taking the first step can be the most difficult, but we’re here to support – with no pressure or judgement.
Professional and compassionate help is just a phone call or click away.
