Trauma can be profoundly disturbing, shattering your sense of safety, comfort and control. Fears of encountering triggers could cause you to change your entire daily routine. Any memory of the traumatic event places you right back into the experience, causing your natural fight-or-flight response to kick into overdrive. Afterward, it can take a long time to feel grounded and calm again. A trauma specialist can help you address and process the root causes of these issues.
What Is Trauma-Informed Care?
Trauma-informed care means treating the whole person, accounting for your unique history and any coping mechanisms you have developed to protect yourself.
What makes this approach so valuable? As one example, consider what happens all too often when rape survivors come forward to report their assault. Authority figures might not believe them unless they are visibly distraught. Unfortunately, many survivors of rape and abuse suppress their emotional pain to restore a sense of normalcy. These women might be reluctant to describe what happened to them, preferring to downplay the event instead.
People who have never experienced trauma may not fully understand how disruptive it can be. Even if they are highly sensitive and empathetic, they lack the context to understand what trauma survivors are going through. That’s why it can be so helpful for people who have lived through trauma to find a specialist who can give them the best possible chance of healing and moving forward.
The Link Between Trauma and Substance Use
Many people who develop substance abuse problems, especially women, have a history of trauma. For long-term trauma survivors who have struggled in silence, drinking or drug use may begin as a misguided survival skill – a way to dial down the chronic stress and anxiety they feel. However, women frequently progress into addiction more quickly than men, making their situation unstable after only a short period of drug or alcohol use.
A trauma-informed therapist will respect the pain you have experienced and treat you as someone who deserves health and happiness just as much as everyone else. They will also provide you with a clear path to healing by teaching you new ways to replace self-destructive behavior with life-affirming new habits.
Find the Compassionate Care You Deserve
Trauma alone is an extremely complex mental illness. When you add drugs and alcohol to the equation, the situation can spiral out of control even more rapidly. If you got caught in the trap of addiction while trying to overcome an upsetting life event, you need to find a treatment facility that offers help for women experiencing trauma and substance abuse.
At Canyon Crossing, we offer women’s-only addiction recovery services that account for the gender differences that contribute to co-occurring disorders. To learn more about starting your healing journey at our Prescott, AZ, facility, please reach out to our team today. We understand what you are going through, and we don’t want you to struggle another day.
