Jun
13
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Addiction
Addiction to drugs or alcohol creates a huge amount of stress on the abuser, and is sometimes overlooked in recovery. The nature of trauma is repetitive, and addiction fits the bill. At some point, the addict is just trying to feel normal, so using becomes a reason to restore some kind of balance in a person’s life. But continued use only perpetuates and amplifies the problem, pushing the abuser further in the hole of addiction.
So what is the way out? The first step is recognizing that one’s best thinking has gotten you where you are today, the good, the bad and the ugly. Thinking that we can handle it on our own is over-rated, and will likely keep us going in the same direction. A closed system only supports what has happened up to now, and will continue until some new way of approaching addiction emerges. It will take giving up being right and letting go of making others wrong. This usually doesn’t happen until people run out of options. Being bankrupt, or in jail, or losing one’s family, job or career can get our attention, but it doesn’t have to get this bad to make some changes.
Trauma, like depression attempts to solve problems by ruminating over solutions to future problems that have yet to occur, or that we think might occur again. When we become trapped by this way of thinking, the past seems fast on our heels while the future occurs like something to avoid. To work with this stuck way of thinking, we look at what we can and cannot control, addressing what we can and leaving the rest alone. Disrupting the momentum of this faulty thinking requires letting go of fixed ways of being. It also requires us to manage the things that are manageable, and distinguish the things that are unmanageable, leaving them alone.
Getting support and coaching from a counselor and medical staff is important to disrupt unhealthy patterns of thinking and to begin to work with what is within one’s control.
