The numbers associated with trauma are eye-opening, to say the least. To start, about 70% of adults in the United States have witnessed or experienced trauma, to say nothing of the millions of kids and adolescents whose lives have been touched by trauma.
It’s hardly a coincidence that substance use disorder (SUD) rates in our country are also alarmingly high — in 2020 alone, more than 40 million Americans had SUDs.
As mental health specialists, board-certified psychologist Dr. Trey Cole and our team at Quandary Peak Counseling understand all too well how trauma can lurk behind many mental health issues, including substance use disorders.
That’s why we go in a more productive direction and use trauma-informed therapy to help people break free from their past and their subsequent substance misuse. Let’s take a look.
Substance use disorders rarely pop up out of nowhere and stand alone as a mental health issue. For example, an older study from 2006 reports that 75% of people with SUDs have experienced trauma.
Another, more recent study, also reports that the lifetime SUD prevalence was 14.5% in people who experienced trauma versus 5.1% with no trauma exposure
We also know that there’s considerable crossover between SUDs and mental health issues like anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and depression. Many people turn to substances like drugs and alcohol to self medicate.
Given this landscape, we’re big believers in treating each mental health issue holistically. By holistic, we mean stepping back and taking a look at the whole picture.
So, if you’re struggling with a substance use issue, we dig deeper to figure out whether your substance misuse stems from an underlying issue, and it usually does.
Many people use drugs or alcohol to numb themselves to unpleasant and traumatic experiences to make them forget. Unfortunately, drugs and alcohol are only a temporary solution and a dangerous one at that, since there’s risk of addiction and dependence.
If we find that there’s trauma in your past that may be affecting your present, we turn to trauma-informed therapy. This means that we provide a safe and supportive environment in which we can help you move past your trauma so you’re better able to cope in your present world.
Through different psychotherapies, our goal is to help you feel more empowered — trauma can often make people feel powerless.
With trauma-informed therapy, we design an individualized plan that addresses the trauma and your SUD at the same time and in a way that acknowledges the role that trauma plays in your substance use.
By helping you process and break free from your trauma with healthier coping strategies, we help you remove a key driver of your substance use issue. And this work sets you up for longer-term success.
So, if you’re struggling with a substance use disorder, we want to sit down with you to get to the bottom of the issue, which might involve trauma work. To get started, we invite you to call our office in Denver, Colorado, at 720-675-7918 today.
