Approximately 6% of the US population will develop PTSD at some time in their life. People who seek therapy for PTSD are 14 times more likely to be diagnosed with substance use disorder. This dual illness presentation frequently adds complexity and obstacles to SUD therapy, necessitating an integrative approach.
What is PTSD?
It was formerly thought to afflict mainly military veterans. However, now we know a lot more about this complicated mental health disorder, particularly how it affects substance use.
PTSD is an anxiety condition that develops after a person observes or experiences a bad incident or sequence of events. During a distressing or hazardous circumstance, our bodies react in a way that we may not be able to control easily. This involves the release of substances to assist us in dealing with the current situation. Most people’s bodies will normalize within some timeframe once the crisis is gone. However, for other people, the physiological alterations sustain and appear as a variety of psychological signs, including impaired coping capacity. This incapacity might lead one to use drugs to deal with worries, tension, and other undesirable feelings.
Causes of PTSD
The occurrence of PTSD necessitates a triggering event, which can be public and objectively frightening, like a vehicle accident or, more intimate, i.e., reactions to interpersonal abuse. Anyone who has been exposed to such conditions runs the risk of getting PTSD signs. Still, the danger is increased, particularly for individuals who have inadequate protective elements in their lives.
Trauma may have an influence on one’s sense of security in the environment and relationships and can influence if a person believes they can trust themselves to be capable. It can have an influence on if individuals feel comfortable enough to trust or ask for help. Trauma can also cause one to feel like he or she made certain mistakes that should have been prevented, or they may simply blame themselves.
PTSD and SUD
PTSD sufferers commonly tend to use drugs and alcoholic drinks in order to soothe their signs of the underlying issue. Unluckily, people with PTSD are more likely to get hooked on to drug use. The belief that alcohol soothes your anxieties and helps them sleep is wrong and has the opposite effect in reality.
PTSD patients frequently utilize various medications to alleviate their anxiety. As a result, you can’t comfort yourself without using substances, and this indicates that there may be a link between SUD and trauma. When PTSD is treated alongside drug use concerns, the experts help patients understand how trauma prompted them to seek solace and, in some cases, numb themselves. Treatment is available for all types of drugs. They also assist patients in understanding how trauma has affected them and what coping skills they may develop to deal with it.
For the treatment, community recovery groups also make an ongoing resource for learning how to stay clean and develop healthier and supportive relationships. Those positive connections also served as security factors, allowing you to stay sober and learn the ways to cope when trauma is re-triggered.
