One of the precipitators of both substance abuse and relapse is trauma. This can include single incidents such as the loss of a loved one, a serious accident, or a natural disaster. There is also long-lasting or ongoing trauma like PTSD from military service, sexual abuse, or finding out you have a serious illness. These events can result in any combination of fear, depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, and flashbacks. If you’re in recovery, learning strategies to cope with these feelings without turning to drugs or alcohol is imperative to long-term sobriety. There are, of course, plenty of medications available to treat mental disorders, but if you’re unwilling to risk taking more drugs, there are still options.
Everyone reacts differently to trauma, but generally, the immediate effects are shock and denial. It might be hard to believe that the incident actually happened, and you’ll try to convince yourself that you were seeing things, or maybe you’re still asleep. Hours or days later when the truth sinks in, you’re going to face a multitude of emotions. Fear, helplessness, anger, guilt, and sadness are all common. You might find that you have trouble sleeping or suffer from nightmares, can’t concentrate or think clearly, or have headaches or other pains. It would be tempting for anyone to want to drown their sorrows or escape back into denial, but as a recovering addict, you’ll have to learn to deal with your emotions in a healthy way.
Here are some things that you should not do: bottle up your feelings, make major life choices, blame yourself, hide behind denial, isolate yourself, engage in risky behavior, work too much or otherwise strain yourself trying to avoid thinking about what happened, or remain hypervigilant.
Some positive ways that you should deal with trauma are:
- Give yourself time to come to terms with what happened
- Talk to someone, whether friend, family member or therapist
- Seek out people who have survived similar events
- Stick to a routine – it might be tempting to huddle up in bed for a few days and hide from the world, but the best thing you can do is keep moving forward, one day at a time.
- Allow yourself to do normal things or enjoy yourself. You didn’t ask for bad things to happen to you, and punishing yourself isn’t going to help anyone.
- Find a way to relax, whether it be meditation, yoga, exercise, gardening, or breathing exercises.
In the case of something like a natural disaster or terrorist attack, keep informed of breaking news but avoid sitting in front of the television watching the same footage over and over again. Also, be careful about where you get your news and how reliable the source is. Don’t listen to rumors.
If you or a loved one need help with quitting drugs or alcohol, consider Asana Recovery. We offer medical detox, along with both residential and outpatient programs, and you’ll be supervised by a highly trained staff of medical professionals, counselors, and therapists. Call us any time at (949) 438-4504.