When you experience a disturbing event, you may initially experience shock as your body tries to protect you from emotional or physical pain. You may feel for several days after the incident, while the numbness and disassociation can last up to six weeks. Once the initial shock wears off, you may continue to experience long-term adverse effects, known as trauma. Trauma therapy can help you overcome the effects of trauma so you can move on with your life.
Serenity House Detox & Recovery Houston can be your guide to healing from trauma and co-occurring substance abuse. These two often go hand in hand, but we can help you break free. Give us a call today at 866.516.8356 to learn more about our trauma therapy and addiction treatment programs.
What Is Trauma?
Many traumatic events are single incidents, but trauma can also be due to a series of events such as being bullied, harassed, or neglected. You can also experience trauma from witnessing a stressful event. Some examples of events that can lead to trauma are:
- Death of a loved one
- Life-threatening illness
- Major car accident
- Domestic violence
- Rape
- Assault
- War
- Natural disaster
- Terrorism
What Are the Effects of Trauma?
How do you know if you are suffering from trauma? You may have symptoms of trauma without making the connection between them and the stressful event. Some possible effects of trauma include:
- Nightmares about the event
- Excessive fear about a reoccurrence of the event
- Avoiding people or places associated with the event
- Feeling anxiety or nervousness on the anniversary of the event
- Isolating yourself from others
- Inability to concentrate, loss of memory
- Drastic mood swings
- Chronic tension, headaches, and nausea
Trauma is a subjective experience, so do not downplay the effects trauma has on your health and well-being. Even if the stressful experience does not appear to be a big deal to others, it can still affect you deeply enough to cause trauma.
How Can You Heal From Trauma?
One of the most effective ways to heal from trauma is to undergo trauma therapy. This specialized therapy can help you process trauma and release it so you can heal and move on to a healthier, happier life. Some of the ways that trauma therapy can help you heal include:
- Identifying thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that have developed in response to the traumatic event
- Providing a safe space where you can process the painful memories of the traumatic event
- Helping to desensitize you from triggers associated with the event
- Teaching coping skills that you can use when uncomfortable emotions arrive
Trauma therapy helps release the hold of traumatic events on your mind and body. With the guidance of a trauma-informed therapist, you can process your trauma and let it go.
How Can You Start Healing with Trauma Support Recovery?
People struggling with trauma often turn to self-medication with drugs and alcohol to relieve the emotional discomfort. When you get help for substance use disorder that accompanies trauma, the most effective addiction treatment should include trauma-focused therapy. Healing from trauma enhances the efficacy of an addiction treatment program in a range of ways, such as:
- Getting to the root cause of substance use – You can recover more thoroughly by dealing with the painful emotions that led you to drugs and alcohol.
- Increasing resilience to stress – You may learn mindfulness and stress reduction techniques to help soothe your nervous system and decrease stressors’ impact on you.
- Decreasing risk of relapse – The coping skills you will learn can help you feel calmer and more confident, so you can deal with triggers without relapsing.
Have you experienced a traumatic event that took you down the path to substance abuse? If so, you owe it to yourself to address trauma and addiction concurrently with trauma therapy and substance abuse treatment.
Begin Healing at Serenity House Detox & Recovery Houston
At Serenity House Detox & Recovery Houston, we realize how trauma can result in substance abuse and how difficult it can be to end that addiction without proper treatment for trauma. Our comprehensive addiction treatment programs include various therapies, including trauma therapy, so that you can experience full and lasting recovery. When you are ready to move on from the effects of trauma, give us a call at 866.516.8356.
