Written by: Travis Thompson, LMFT, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Surely addicts use drugs and alcohol to escape past traumas. Something terrible must have happened to cause them to act that way, right? There is no way that someone falls that far into alcoholism or drug addiction if they are just a bit sad. Or maybe there was a chemical hook that lured them in and got them addicted to a street drug. If that were true, then couldn’t we just take them off the drug and they would be able to be sober? Why then would they show such great anxiety and depression?
What Trauma is
Whenever we talk about trauma, we always think about the big events that happen in someone’s life that are so intense that they are remembered in daily life. In therapy, these events are often pointed to as the source of “bad” emotions and relationships. While it can be easy to point to a boogeyman to blame, trauma can be much more complex than a single event.
Clinical trauma is something that is so intense or overwhelming that an individual cannot emotionally or mentally process what occurred. These instances lead to feelings of insecurity in the body and environment. When someone is unable to process what has happened to them, they end up with symptoms associated with trauma that we all know about. To be clear, clinical trauma is not something that is just unpleasant. We call a terrible first date “traumatic,” but sometimes dates are not great. That does not make them traumatic. Now that we understand what qualifies as trauma, we can divide it into two different categories.
The first category of trauma is “Big T” trauma. These are the classic instances that everyone thinks of when discussing trauma that they have experienced. Some examples of “Big T” trauma could include car accidents, a shooting close to home, a natural disaster, or a sudden loss of a loved one. These definitive times become markers in our memory of when things changed emotionally and relationally.
The second category of trauma is “Little t” trauma. This version is different from its partner. “Little t” traumas are overall experiences that impose beliefs and emotional experiences that are significant enough to not allow emotional expression or processing. Some examples of this include living in an unsafe neighborhood, having a chaotic home life, being restricted in expressions of need or safety, and having continual fear of being yelled at or assaulted. “Little t” traumas can be more difficult to pin down in therapy since there is no single event that would “qualify” as traumatic.
Neither “Big T” traumas nor “Little t” traumas are more important to deal with. “Big T” traumas are so severe that they can scar someone’s memory and make it difficult to move on from. These are certainly vital to address. However, “Little t” trauma can be even more dangerous due to how sneaky it can be in someone’s thinking. Without something specific to blame for the way someone thinks or believes, it can be difficult to make sense of why someone feels the way they do.
What PTSD is
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is the main clinical diagnosis that everyone knows about in the realm of trauma. When it was first recognized, American soldiers in World War I were showing odd behaviors and responses that were called “shell shock.” This perception of what qualifies as trauma has been carried to this day. Many believe that PTSD can only occur in those that have experienced something as significant as war. After psychologists were able to further explore what caused “shell shock,” they connected similar symptoms to the general population. The label then eventually moved from a militarily named “shell shock” to PTSD.
PTSD is simply a response to “Big T” or “Little t” trauma. The difference between more common trauma symptoms and PTSD is the severity. Individuals who experience PTSD show incredible responses to what has happened to them, more than just avoidance of situations or anxiety during a conversation. Their brains show such a great need to protect against overwhelming emotional and relational experiences that they revert to primal or instinctual responses.
While typical trauma responses, like that of a car accident, would be anxiety around certain places or even fear of weather patterns. PTSD takes avoidance and protection to such a great degree that it can be difficult to pin down exactly what would cause a PTSD response. That is because those with trauma wish to protect themselves from a repeat of what they have experienced, but with a twist. Instead of waiting for that bad thing to happen again, they watch out for the things that happened before. If someone with trauma symptoms wants to protect against another severe car accident, they may flinch at the squealing of tires. If someone with PTSD from war wants to protect against another explosion, they may hunker down with the sound of fireworks or a car backfiring.
How Addicts Experience Trauma
All of this can seem to be a bit too much for the lonely addict to relate to, right? Well, we can take our understanding of trauma and addiction and see if there is anything worth noticing. If addiction is the avoidance of emotional and relational vulnerability, then addicts are unable to find safety in everyday life. If trauma includes anything that is so emotionally or relationally overwhelming that significant responses occur, then an overlap begins to appear. “Little t” trauma becomes the descriptor for addiction.
Addicts continue in a cycle of “Little t” trauma every time they feel the pains of withdrawal and possible sobriety. They fear everything that they will have to face when the drugs or alcohol wear off. So, they chase after their substance to avoid having to sit in the mess that they have created. Addicts have created a cycle of “Little t” trauma that can easily develop into PTSD symptoms. While the jury is still out on just how much addicts can identify with PTSD in the middle of their use, there is no denying that clinical evaluations continually show addicts scoring well within a PTSD diagnosis.
When working and speaking with addicts, we cannot ignore or avoid the very real environment of trauma that they live in. The alcoholic may not have been abused as a child, but he has believed for the past 10 years that emotional and relational vulnerability is too overwhelming to bear. The addict may not have seen war but has avoided any possibility of intimate connection with anyone around her for decades, leading to a total disconnection from society and family. We have to recognize, respect, and engage the traumatic experiences of addicts if we hope to speak hope to them in treatment or long life.
Travis Thompson, LMFT, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Travis Thompson, is a researcher, teacher, and therapist focused on healing the lives of those in addiction. With a drive to see effective, long-term change in his community, he has dedicated himself, his practice, and his doctoral work on both research, education, and implementation of recovery. He strives to further the mental health field towards a holistic and advanced understanding of what addiction truly is, where it comes from, and how we all can help.
