By Meryl Lammers, LSW, MT-BC
Maintaining long term sobriety and leading a happy life is often not possible without addressing the underlying issues that fueled the addiction in the first place. A significant overlap exists between trauma and substance abuse. Studies indicate that a substantial percentage of individuals who have experienced Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), or early childhood trauma, also struggle with substance use disorders (SUDs), and vice versa. Individuals with a higher ACE score are 7-10 times more likely to develop substance use disorders than people without ACEs or with lower ACE scores. Certain ACEs, like emotional neglect, sexual abuse, and physical abuse are particularly strong predictors of substance use disorders.
Early Stages of Sobriety
People in early sobriety may have not yet have established a sense of safety and stability required to proceed with trauma therapy and tend to benefit from focusing on coping skills for relapse prevention and build a strong supportive community, whether through drug and alcohol rehabilitation, support groups, 12 Step meetings, Dharma Recovery, friends, family, religious or community organizations. In the early stages of sobriety, both neurobiological and physical changes occur as the body and brain adjust to the absence of substances. Additionally, the brain also begins to recover its structural and functional integrity, which is a crucial step before engaging in trauma processing.
Offering Trauma Therapy for Parental Stress at the Phoenix Center in Media, PA or Online!
484-440-9416 | [email protected]
Going Back into the Past
As people continue to recover, they may rejoin their lives, their jobs, their families, and lead a fulfilling life. They may not see the benefit of going back into the past to work through difficult experiences because they start to feel better. Sometimes people in long term recovery can become complacent with what helped them get sober. Maybe they reduce or stop going to 12 Step meetings or mutual aid programs, stop therapy, or reduce their use of coping skills for staying away from substances.
Additionally, people may also experience common life stressors, difficulties, or even experience significant loss or trauma well into sobriety. These experiences have the potential to resurface past traumatic experiences that may not have been dealt with in early recovery. Left undealt with, the past experiences may increase depression, suicidality, and poor occupational functioning, or decrease your ability to handle stressful situations which can lead to relapse.
Potential Risks of unresolved childhood trauma in long term sobriety:
Relapse
New behavioral addictions
Depression
Anxiety
Low self-esteem or self-worth
Persistent negative view of self
Emotional numbness or intense emotional reactions
Avoidance and dissociation
Hypervigilance and difficulty concentrating or sleeping
Difficulties in relationships
Difficulty with daily functioning
Shame or self-blame
Intrusive thoughts
PTSD symptoms including flashbacks, nightmares, and strong emotional responses.
Twelve Step Programs
Bill Wilson, the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), experienced a childhood marked by the abandonment of his parents and a subsequent period of depression at 17 after the death of his first love. He wrote extensively about his struggles with depression, insomnia, and fatigue in long-term sobriety. He noted that depression specifically required its own unique recovery process.
Bill began therapy years into his depression in the 1940s (40 years before PTSD was recognized) with a Jungian therapist and shared that therapy helped him work through what he called “psychic damages,” which included inferiority, guilt, shame, and anger. He wrote that doing a “psychic inventory,” like the moral inventory of AA, would help reduce the effects of these “psychic damages.” His therapeutic work later informed his writing in the 1953 book, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, which were essays expanding upon the 12 Steps from the 1939 book, Alcoholics Anonymous.
Individuals with long term sobriety and a history of childhood trauma would benefit greatly from engaging in trauma therapy to help maintain both physical and emotional sobriety. For many people in long-term recovery, trauma therapy is a necessary form of relapse prevention.
Benefits of trauma therapy for people with long term sobriety include:
Improved emotional regulation.
Reduced symptoms of PTSD, depression, and anxiety.
Greater sense of hope, meaning, and purpose.
Stronger relationships.
Fostering a sense of empowerment and well-being.
Improve self-esteem and self-worth.
Peace of mind and sense of safety
Gain a greater understanding of themselves and their reactions to trauma.
Relapse prevention.
Offering Trauma Therapy at the Phoenix Center in Media, PA or Online!
484-440-9416 | [email protected]
If you are someone in long-term sobriety who has an interest in working through traumatic experiences, please call the Phoenix Center to schedule an appointment with one of our skilled experiential trauma therapists to help enhance your emotional sobriety and overall well-being.
Meryl Lammers is an Experiential Trauma Therapist and Music Therapist at The Phoenix Center for Experiential Trauma Therapy. Meryl also provides Trauma Recovery Coaching.
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