08 Feb Treating Trauma & Addiction in Surrey, BC
Addiction is a concept that can be extremely difficult to understand, for both those in its grasp and those observing its destruction. Addiction is a disease that can be caused by several factors including genetics, environment, personal behaviour, and experience, in the form of trauma. The relationship between trauma and substance abuse is complicated and closely intertwined. In other words, the road between the two goes both ways, and the negative consequences of one disorder can worsen the problems of the other.
Almost three-fourths of individuals in Surrey who receive private treatment for substance abuse also have a history of trauma. Conversely, these individuals who have suffered trauma are three times as likely to abuse drugs and/or alcohol.
Treating addiction and/or alcoholism in Surrey can be overwhelming and complex. Oftentimes we view trauma as something dramatic and in your face. We conjure up images of war, death, and violent assaults. The reality is that the majority of trauma is much more insidious and understated.
What is Trauma and What Causes it?
One of the biggest misconceptions about trauma is that it is caused only by overtly life-threatening events. In actual fact, research now shows that 75% of trauma is interpersonal, meaning that it does not come from a battlefield, refugee camp or an earthquake but is inflicted by one person onto another, often purposefully.
Trauma is a situation or an event that a person simply cannot cope with. It can leave the person in an extreme state of fear, making them overwhelmingly afraid of imminent death, destruction, or actual physical or mental harm. Trauma can also come from life experiences such as having a parent who sent you the messages that nothing you did was ever good enough or never feeling like you really fit in growing up. The loss of a serious romantic relationship can also cause trauma. Trauma can be anything that affects a person negatively. So if that is the case then many people in Surrey have experienced trauma at some point in their lives. If this trauma hasn’t been processed, we are walking around with an open wound.
Trauma is a very personal experience that depends upon the individual. It can be a response to a single, one-time occurrence, or it can be developed over time because of a chronic or systematic situation. Trauma is a broad term used to describe a wide range of incidents, the most common include
- Rape or sexual assault
- General physical assault
- Domestic or intimate partner violence
- Verbal and emotional abuse
- Bullying and repeated harassment of any kind
- Terminal illness
- Natural disasters
- War or involvement in military combat
- Accidents such as car crashes or fire
- Parental neglect
- Extreme deprivation
What is important to note is that a person who suffers from exposure to trauma doesn’t necessarily need to be the victim witnessing any of these occurrences can be sufficiently harmful.
Emotions and Reactions to Trauma in Surrey, BC
Trauma can be far-reaching in its influence on one’s life. Trauma can impact our beliefs about ourselves, the quality of our relationships, even how our brain biology works. It can lead to feelings of low self-worth, chronic hypervigilance and can result in self-destructive behaviours.
Addiction can be understood as an attempt to cope with the discomfort of trauma, to escape and deny the painful reality of what one has experienced, to create false confidence when inside one is falling apart or questioning their worth. Addiction is utilized as a chemical solution to a soul problem. Trauma creates the perfect storm for desperation to feel better in any way that we can. Thus, the addiction isn’t necessarily the problem, but the attempted solution to the real problem. If we aren’t treating the real problem, our trauma, we aren’t treating our addiction.
A person who has suffered trauma first-hand will experience an entire list of negative emotions
- helplessness
- confusion
- betrayal
- pain
- entrapment
- powerlessness
- confusion
- loss
- terror
Most of those emotions are temporary. However, a person who has suffered a sufficiently traumatic event can experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD can manifest at any time and can last for years and even a lifetime.
It is also possible to become detached from emotions altogether. Other common issues for those in Surrey who have experienced trauma may include sleep disturbances, relationship problems, and flashbacks to traumatic episodes. Those suffering from trauma may not only struggle with alcohol or drug abuse but also eating disorders or self-harm.
The private treatment centres in Surrey that we work with offer comprehensive care, including dual diagnosis treatment, that addresses any co-occurring mental health disorders or substance abuse addictions.
Acute Stress Disorder and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
There is a range of possible responses to trauma for those living in Surrey, BC. These include acute stress disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), among others. Acute stress disorder is an immediate response to a traumatic incident. It lasts anywhere from three days to three weeks following an event. Surrey residents who develop this disorder are at risk of PTSD and may benefit from trauma therapy. Chronic PTSD lasts for three months or more after experiencing trauma. Delayed-onset PTSD develops at least six months after a traumatic event. Some symptoms may show up earlier but may not be recognized as a response to trauma. Complex trauma symptoms can develop at any time. They often result from ongoing situations rather than one-time events. Examples include chronic emotional neglect, domestic abuse and attachment issues.
Data published in TIME Magazine indicates that 55 to 60 percent of all post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) victims end up developing some form of chemical dependency. It has been said that 7 to 8 percent of the Canadian population suffers from some level of PTSD.
Childhood Trauma in Surrey, BC
There is a clear and distinct correlation between childhood trauma and drug and alcohol addiction or misuse in Surrey, BC. The traumatic incidents that we experience in our childhood very easily can, and often do, wind up following us into maturity creating a variety of long-term mental health issues that may cause us to self-medicate through excessive drinking or drug abuse. It is reported that more than a third of adolescents who have suffered abuse or neglect will have a substance use disorder before they reach their 18th birthday. Identifying trauma-related substance abuse triggers is a key element of treatment and fundamental to helping individuals in recovery live a rich and full life as they endeavour to stay clean.
Impacts in Adulthood Due to Childhood Trauma
Trauma symptoms that take root in childhood often have a severely negative impact on the quality of life in adulthood, affecting a full range of areas.
Professional Life Problems
Data indicates that lingering effects of childhood trauma can manifest as the conflict in the workplace in Surrey. Trauma experienced in childhood has a direct influence on how sufferers perceive and process adversity, trust and relate to others, handle responsibility, and much more, all factors with which adults are expected to contend in the workplace every day. Inability to process childhood trauma can have a direct impact on professional mobility and quality of life.
Romantic and Social Relationships Issues
Childhood trauma survivors, particularly those who have experienced sexual trauma or any other type of physical or emotional abuse, often have serious intimacy issues that create significant obstacles to forming healthy romantic relationships. Data indicates that childhood trauma has a direct impact on how we form a general and sexual identity, trust others, develop self-worth, assert our confidence, avoid or embrace destructive relationships, and more.
Eating Disorders – Binge Eating, Bulimia, and Anorexia
Binge eating disorder, bulimia, and anorexia are psychological illnesses often brought about by childhood abuse. According to The New York centre for Eating Disorders, 50% of all patients presenting with eating disorders are victims of childhood assault. For many people with eating disorders, trusting food is safer than trusting people. It never abuses you, ridicules you, dies, or abandons you. It is the only relationship where we get to say where, when, and how much. No other relationship complies with our needs so absolutely.
Food, after all in Surrey, is the cheapest, most available, legal, socially acceptable mood-altering drug on the market. Patients report that even as children they turned to bingeing, purging, or starving as a way to manage unbearable emotions following sexual trauma. The comfort of compulsive overeating, vomiting, laxatives or self-starvation as well as the numbing effects of the drug of food can be a short-term solution to the pain, grief, and rage of abuse and live on as a coping mechanism in adulthood.
Addiction and Trauma in Surrey, BC
Nobody wakes up and makes the conscious decision to become addicted to a substance. More than likely, if you have experienced trauma in your past you woke up with the conscious or unconscious desire for what all survivors of trauma in Surrey are looking for; safety and control.
If you are a resident of Surrey there are two ways to look at your addictive behaviour. You can look at it negatively and feel embarrassed, angry, ashamed, frustrated, or any number of other unpleasant emotions. Or, you can learn to view your addiction or substance used for the good intention that lies beneath it; the desire to comfort yourself and make yourself feel better. Acknowledging this allows you to begin understanding that while the addiction outcome is not desirable the behaviour behind it makes perfect sense.
Research shows unequivocally that unresolved trauma is commonly the underlying cause behind addiction. In this context addiction is in fact a process of ongoing pathological self-soothing. It is also now well established that many individuals who relapse after a period of sobriety often do so because of untreated traumatic memory.
Of course, experiencing a trauma doesn’t guarantee that a person will go on to develop an addiction, however, there is a lot of research out there that shows that trauma is often a major underlying source of addiction behaviour in Surrey.
Treating Co-Occurring Addiction and Childhood Trauma
Treatment for childhood trauma-related addiction must simultaneously address the immediate medical and behavioural aspects of substance abuse while providing targeted and in-depth treatment for the trauma-related triggers that sustained it. This is accomplished through a comprehensive course of professional private addiction treatment beginning with medically supervised detoxification, followed by focused and customized behavioural rehab in Surrey.
While each patient’s addiction care needs will vary according to their level of trauma and their scope of substance abuse, addressing both of these factors is crucial to successful management of stress and to sustaining recovery. More severe cases of co-occurring trauma and substance abuse may require long-term inpatient treatment, whereas those with a more limited history may benefit from intensive outpatient treatment in Surrey, BC.
For many individuals who have experienced trauma, spending time in a residential rehabilitation facility is the first step in the healing experience. However, it is absolutely critical that the private detox and rehab centre in Surrey offers suitably qualified and professional staff who understand the intricacies and complexities of trauma and are able to work with the client safely through the effects of trauma.
What Makes our Private Detox and Treatment Centres in Surrey, BC Different?
At Andy Bhatti Interventions and Addiction Services, we only work with private detox and rehab centres in Surrey, BC that offer extensive training in multiple PTSD and complex trauma treatment modalities including EMDR, prolonged exposure therapy, cognitive reprocessing therapy, trauma-focused CBT and many other therapeutic modalities.
Our view is that addiction is not the core problem for many trauma sufferers in Surrey. It is actually the solution to a problem that has admittedly become much bigger than the problem it was designed to solve. Our trauma-focused programs recognize that when our clients stop their drug and alcohol use, they are forced to confront the reason they became addicted in the first place. Without resolving the underlying trauma, the individual remains at a high risk of relapse, crossing into another addiction or worse still, living a life beset with depression, panic, rage, despair and intense feelings of shame and worthlessness.
By providing patient-centred care for Surrey residents and focusing on the individual needs for treatment, services, and therapeutic interventions the private rehabs we work with have the ability to best serve every individual. We recognize that drug addiction and alcoholism is a complex disease that requires a comprehensive and unique approach for every person. We offer an integrated care approach focusing on substance use disorders, mental health conditions and/or co-occurring behavioural health conditions. The private treatment facilities we work with offer a variety of treatment approaches including the following.
- Individualized interventions
- Biopsychosocial assessments
- Psychiatric evaluations for mental health
- Individual sessions every week with a primary counsellor
- Individual sessions for mental health
- Medication management and 3rd party management of pharmacotherapy
- Drug and alcohol screenings and labs
- Group counselling and therapy
- Untangling dysfunctional family systems/family therapy
- LGBTQ affirmative counselling
- Facilitation to outside community support meetings
- Trauma-Informed Care
At Andy Bhatti Interventions and Addiction Services in Surrey, BC we believe healing from trauma is possible but it takes time. It is a process. Healing requires a willingness to sit with pain and loss. We do want to make that as comfortable as possible though and we believe our private detox and rehabs in Surrey, BC does just that. Healing from trauma and addiction requires an understanding that there are traumas that will never be fully resolved, but if we are doing the hard work our ability to process and move through these painful feelings will improve over time.
Private Detoxification and Withdrawal Management in Surrey, BC
Private medical detox in Surrey provides a safe, supportive, and compassionate environment to help patients heal from the worst of their withdrawal symptoms and get expert help for any medical issues that may arise during the process. This is perhaps the most vulnerable that patients will ever be during the addiction treatment process, and it’s critical that they have quality help and support to help them get through their acute withdrawal symptoms. Surrey residents who endeavour to detox on their own, specifically those with a long history of substance abuse, run a heightened risk of relapse because they’re simply unable to endure the process alone.
Private Inpatient Residential Treatment Options in Surrey
Residential rehabilitation is where the clients can live at the treatment centre in Surrey from a few weeks to a year or more. Much of the day is spent in either group or individual therapy. Private treatment centres in Surrey and around the world offer many of the comforts of home like private rooms, bathrooms and TVs, along with extra luxuries and services. (gyms, trainers, pools, massage therapy, art therapy, yoga, nutritious meals – the list can be endless). A reputable Surrey private drug and alcohol facility should be equipped with medically trained professionals and offer individualized programs catered to the needs of their clients. The centres we work with have all of this and more. Residential rehab can be a good option for people who don’t have a stable home situation, or who need a complete break from their environment to work on their addiction and trauma.
Going Home and After Care in Surrey, BC
We are aware that as discharge approaches it is not unusual to feel anxious or for cravings to arise. Our Surrey Interventionists are completely committed to continuity of care and have developed highly structured outpatient programs for you to transition to after you leave your treatment program. You are not alone. Our personalized treatment programs are similar to some inpatient programs although you sleep in your own bed at home. For those who do not need this level of care or degree of structure, our Intensive Outpatient Program is designed for those who are ready to re-assume the responsibilities of their life yet still need more intensive services than traditional outpatient therapy. Our highly successful programs provide 24 three-hour sessions in addition to various activity focused therapies, 12 step meetings (or other group meetings available in your area) and education for you and your family. Our company also offers private independent medical and psychiatric exams. We work closely with addiction doctors and psychologists in Surrey that work one on one with our professional clients.
Our team of local Surrey professional addiction specialists and interventionists, believe in supporting you and your family not just while you’re at private treatment in Surrey but after you check out as well. Once you have established a relationship with us, we will be there for you always. Whether you simply have questions or concerns or whether you need additional support in your recovery process we don’t turn our backs on you or your family. We are committed to not just get you well but to help you establish a path that will let you create the life you have always wanted to live free from the chains of addiction.
Get In Touch With Us:
Our local Surrey and Langley interventions are successful and help save lives. Do not hesitate to reach out and call us today for your free consultation at 1-888-988-5346 or at support@andybhatti.com. We are waiting to help you now and can be meeting with you in person within 48 hours.