Addiction and trauma are intimately connected. Most addicts have experienced a traumatic incident, and their trauma often encompasses the same factors that result in their addiction to drugs or booze. Many LGBTQ+ patients will also present with trauma related to bullying, rejection, or persecution.
That’s why specialized programs, like an LGBTQ+ Trauma Treatment Program, are so important for healing of the mind but also the body.
Interrelation of Trauma and Addiction
In order to understand why treatment of trauma is so important, let’s begin with defining a link between trauma and addiction. Trauma can come from numerous places like childhood abuse, being bullied, losing someone you love, or being rejected.
If left untreated, it can lead to emotional pain and anxiety or depression. It’s said to cause almost everyone to search for drugs or alcohol as a form of relief which leads to addiction.
Why the LGBTQ+ Specific Trauma Programs Are Important?
Normally, any alcohol or drug recovery program usually never realizes that their problem is different for the LGBTQ+ client. This is where the LGBTQ+ Trauma Program plays the most important role. To cut it short, the LGBTQ+ Trauma Program offers a safe space where the members of the LGBTQ+ community can be accepted and understood.
The specialized LGBTQ+ trauma programs focus on therapies specifically designed to cater to the unique needs of trauma patients in this group. Such programs will adopt desensitizing therapies like CBT that helps evacuate the negative thinking pattern and EMDR, which heals trauma. Patients under such a program are enabled to confront their traumas, shame feelings, and recovery in a safe and non-judgmental environment.
Recovery Mental Health
Such centers also aim at both mental health issues and addiction. Mental health issues could be anxiety or depression, where a rejection or a lack of understanding can worsen the situation for LGBTQ+ populations.
These centers tend to be “dual diagnosis”. That is, they treat addiction and mental illness together. LGBTQ+ treatment centers may offer group therapy as well as peer support along with counseling that builds more confidence and control within their lives.
Trauma Healing for Long-Term Sobriety
Left to itself, untreated trauma becomes almost impossible for a person to stay sober by itself. For the LGBTQ+ individual, healing from trauma, by default, becomes an important component of recovery from addiction.
Folks are typically provided with improved emotional regulation techniques, ability to cope with stressors in life, and skills that make them feel better about themselves after the treatment of trauma is instituted.
There are LGBTQ+ Addiction Treatment Centers in Massachusetts which embrace this approach, trauma-informed care. This simply means understanding how trauma impacts recovery, and providing a treatment that heals for people from addiction, as well as their painful past.
Conclusion
For these populations, the LGBTQ+ population, trauma treatment is the access point to successful recovery from addiction. These programs, such as the LGBTQ+ Trauma Treatment Program, provide comfort and healing that will lead them to a brighter, sober future freed from addiction and trauma.
