The Link Between Trauma and Addiction
Posted on May 06, 2016 by Alicia Keller Thompson, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.
Trauma survivors often use addictive substances and behaviors to cope with painful memories and emotions.
Trauma and addictions are commonly linked together. Often when I work with someone who has experienced trauma, they also have an actual addiction or addictive behavior. The definition of trauma sheds some light on this. Trauma is an event that happens that overwhelms your ability to cope. When your ability to cope is overwhelmed, your body and mind disassociate from the physical and emotion pain as a survival mechanism.
Disassociating from the pain of trauma leaves unprocessed emotions like fear, anxiety, anger, and grief. These unprocessed emotions can trigger addictive behaviors and push you towards addictive substances. Makes sense, right? You feel really uncomfortable in your own skin, you do not want to feel a bunch of horrible emotions, and what you really want is to feel good. Thus, you gravitate towards things that make you feel better, without having to go near emotions that feel bad. The main culprits are alcohol, drugs, food, even shopping.
This rings particularly true to me because I have experienced both trauma and the desire to feel good without diving too deeply into my own pain. I recently stopped drinking alcohol because I was concerned that I was using it as a crutch to combat stress and the inability to relax. Although, I do not believe that I had honest to goodness alcoholism, I do think that I was using alcohol in a way that was not supporting my own growth and personal development.
I have learned two important things.
1. Boredom
When you drink alcohol, you cover up your basic ability to choose what you like and do not like. I noticed that when I am bored, my solution is to drink, either to start drinking or to drink more. I also noticed that if alcohol was involved, I would do anything. Now, I do not mean anything, anything, what I mean is that I would spend time with people that were really boring! I would do things that did not make my heart sing because having a glass of wine made me feel like I was having fun.
2. Growth
Alcohol inhibited my potential for growth and development. I stopped gaining confidence or proficiency because I was never really afraid. When I had to do something that I was a little nervous about, like going to a networking event, I always had a glass of wine to “take the edge off.” Thus, I never really learned how to handle my anxiety of meeting new people and I never gained confidence in my own ability. I just drank a glass of wine, felt better and went along my merry way.
The take away from this? Pay attention to what you are doing and why you are doing it. If your desire is to grow and evolve, part of the growth and evolution process is feeling uncomfortable at times, whether that means giving yourself the space to feel uncomfortable emotions or doing things that you are afraid to do. Do it, feel it, and be fully present. Life is worth it, even the uncomfortable parts.
