As a nurse, I have found that addiction and it’s relation to trauma is poorly understood by my fellow healthcare workers. I am grateful for this information. I am going to watch again and try to take notes on ways I can gently nudge my coworkers towards compassion and understanding. We need more trauma informed healthcare!
As a person with both C-PTSD and substance use disorder, I’ve never met anyone in treatment for one who didn’t have the other. Addiction is so stigmatized as a personal moral failing, but unless I hear otherwise, I assume that person’s family of origin imbued them plenty of trauma. To the point where I don’t understand how everyone doesn’t know this.
I’m happy to hear the video info feels accurate to you. It’s pretty common for nightmares to get worse in recovery. EMDR therapy tends to work pretty well for disturbing images and nightmares and May be work exploring
I'm so glad youtube has speed controls because you're one of the slowest talking people I've ever found on here. 1.5x sounds about "normal" compared to others, haha.
Man, I wish I hadn't been so embarrassed by people claiming addiction is character flaws and weakness and actually addressed my alcoholism before it got this bad
As a trauma informed therapist hopeful that is stuck in active addiction due to undiagnosed autism and paragenic parenting that has repeated over across my family so dysfunctional but I don’t have the energy or money to prove anything I just needed to know because I don’t like uncertainty naturally I’ve been obsessively researching for so many years to figure out what’s happening with my family . I can’t change them I can’t make them look at the science I’m presenting to them so I sent it all to them and said goodbye now I find myself alone and afraid to ask for help because I have so much medical trauma from my case being mishandled I lost my children which was punishment I feel because I wasn’t homeless on the street I had a home I’m educated I was giving my kids their basic needs but lacking intimacy probably Due to the fact that I’ve experienced all of those adverse things like literally every single one in my life so I don’t know how to do this and I admit it fully I think this is the key to getting better. I just lost all the social support I once had and I don’t know how to get it back because I lack social skills. 😢
I also find that I can write down my experience better, so talk therapy really didn’t help me because in the moment I was just talking about things that I’m going through in the moment, and if I am talking about old history traumas, my therapist was not able to give me tangible solutions to ensuring that this doesn’t happen anymore and also the fact that I suspect I am autistic I need to understand why this happened in order for me to see why this is important and relevant to my relationships today. Most addicts do not understand that their relationship patterns is a result of their past traumas that idea and itself blew my mind and most of the public do not understand this, so I think addicts just more simplistic way since our, attention span is getting significantly shorter thanks to social media. We just need to make like a car wash menu of explaining this sort of thing to normal every day people because it is so misunderstood in society today and that’s so incredibly and harmful to those of us who actually care about other humans enough to take the time to learn about the science behind these behaviors… I’m signing up for yoga today to build distress tolerance and hopes of making healthy friends so I can leave poison behind
Also practicing radical honesty I no longer have anything to hide used my business name and everything (not working obviously) taking time out to find social support to get thru this because 12 steps isn’t as supportive as it seems
I think this video was very helpful. I like your videos they’re quite informative and I say Thank You Dr. I’m in recovery now and in July I’ll have 10 yrs from Heroin and Crack and living on the street. Also 13 yrs away from my daughters father my first physical mental and verbally abusive relationship. Then in addiction I was in one dis functional relationship after another. I found a good friend of mine Dead of an Overdose. Not to mention all the bull crap I endured from my childhood but, I know today that my mom was also a victim and did the best that she could. I understand why she was the way she was. I’m 43 yrs old now and I’m the mother of 3 beautiful daughters. I’m in a relationship with a very gentle man who’s so understanding of my past. He supports me and I trust him we live together and have for 9 years and have 2 kids together. I’ve been on an IOP for 10 years that helped me get my life back. I’m still in therapy once a month and I go to group once a week. I feel security in my IOP and I worry that I will be there for the rest of my life. I justify it by telling myself that I’m doing better than I ever had before and The medicine I take definitely beats the alternative to the life I was living on the street and being addicted to Heroin and many other drugs. I just wanted to numb my past pain that I didn’t realize that I was still suffering from also, drug addiction runs deep in my family. I’m doing good I have a pretty much normal life now. I live with my amazing fiancé and our 2 daughters my oldest daughter’s father was one of my abusers so my oldest went to live with my mom for 7 years until I was able to understand that only I could help myself out. She was 11 when I got clean and stable enough for her to come back to live with me but, too much time had gone by and she didn’t want to leave her comfortable stable life at Grammys to go back to me and the unknown even though I was stable enough she was very happy with her school and she didn’t want to transfer. My mom and I had stayed on good terms for my daughter’s sake. I’m okay with it now, I think. Though some days I still wish I didn’t go down that path to lose her for so long I stayed in contact with her but, like I said she was happy and comfortable with my mom and she knew that I was going to be seeing her more often and she and I have remained the best of friends, and we have a great mom and daughter relationship. She’s now 21 her little sisters are still young 8&9 and I’ve come so far because of them. I mean all 3 of them because I first started getting myself to detox and trying to get clean for my oldest daughter after leaving her abusive father. I have my down days as I’m diagnosed with PTSD Bipolar disorder manic depressive disorder and anxiety. I’m enjoying your channel Dr. Please keep your videos coming. The information is important for everyone and I need it. So, thank you
Congratulations! It's heartwarming for me when I read success stories such as yours. Many people I know say getting and staying clean is the hardest thing they've ever done.
I wonder how many of the people in treatment for substance use disorder who’ve been diagnosed with depression/ bipolar/ anxiety are just misdiagnosed C-PTSD. Or at least co-occurring. The treatment facilitators love saying “the opposite of addiction is connection,” and early family trauma suggests a disturbing lack of meaningful connection.
Absolutely 100 percent factual information!! Thank you for this picture of pure honest fact based words of encouragement for millions of people..Dr Gabor matte was my first real clear reason to step up!! He is an angel on earth..and I must also recognize Dr Jonice Webb she was instrumental in my ability to reach out!! And recognize childhood emotional neglect that's were my mental challenges began at age 4 and have lasted for over 30 years...
@@PhoenixTraumaCenter you are so very welcome I am a work in progress. And I know The complex PTSD sometimes makes you feel like you must FLEE THE SITUATION !! And you feel it takes your life over. I have learned when I go fight or flight I have more control over my myself. This is from reading material from people like phoenix trauma?! I hope people that are reading this will realize I've dealt with CPTSD since 1993 and that's a very long time.. You must realize it won't go away, and that's the bad part, the good part is you can control yourself. The deep breathing , the hands over the head, the cbt .etc etc. Yada yada yada!! Stop traumatizing and don't look for easy quick solutions, sorry they will not happen !! But baby steps will.. I hope the Phoenix trauma center continues doing what they do! I really do feel like someday the stigmas of mental health will fade into darkness. and when they do, America will reduce the numbers of deaths by suicide I think by 70 percent!! Call it a dream I call it POSSIBLE!! If you are reading my post right now and you're feeling out of place in your world, ITS OK!! I did not look at myself in a mirror for 11 years! I do now. Because people like me and you are sharing thoughts and prayers about mental health. Please don't say you are suffering from mental illness. I would like you to look in that mirror and say, My mental CHALLENGES seem very tough today but I'm not going to dwell on it. If you put a saddle on a horse backwards. All you will ever see is what's behind you. And sorry to mention you will see a horses A$" too. The CHALLENGE YOU FACE IS TURNING THE SADDLE THE CORRECT WAY AND RIDE BOLDLY RIDE!! YOU WILL BE FINE I PROMISE. ITS A CHALLENGE GO FOR IT!! PEACE OUT!! HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!
Hi Kareem, I don't think there is as much research or discussion about this - but I would say that there are many other behaviors (such as sex, gambling, work, etc) that someone can become addicted to, and that this addiction can be fueled by past trauma.
@@PhoenixTraumaCenter Thanks I apprecaite that. I also didn't find much association when searching the internet. I'm 40 and can't stop thinking about sex, though I'm married. But the truth is, I grew up deprived from sex until age 33 due to religion, so I think I have a valid excuse here not to be classified as a sex addict or sex obsessed?
@@aktuber101 I think that would be a relatively common response to what you experienced. It wouldn't really be appropriate for me to label/diagnose/assess anyone via youtube. However, if it is causing disruption to your life or marriage, it would be a good thing to seek some support around from a therapist or explore a support group to see if it is right for you.
Any single addiction or multiple addictions can be from trauma in my experience. Bullying, blatant racism, physical beatings by school colleagues, domestic violence, being secluded, jail, prison, police brutality, divorce, PTSD from war, family suicide, and family abuse are also causes for addiction. Everyone is affected mildly or to the extreme toward addictions!
Hi Mr WTF - we encourage you to reach out to a local community resources for support. Perhaps we can help connect you with someone that can help. Is there an email we can contact you at?
@@PhoenixTraumaCenter Eek that was a little harsh of them, I definitely noticed but I'm still glad I found the video. The information was really great, I had never heard that the mechanism for mental and physical pain is the same in the brain. I started drinking due to mental trauma, then I experienced physical trauma and chronic pain and continued to use alcohol for that too. And now I'm a severe alcoholic. Definitely can spot the correlation.
