If you’re struggling with thoughts of suicide, PLEASE call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
The work we do to recover involves learning how to abstain from our drug of choice, transforming our lifestyles and routines to support our sobriety, and looking at our life circumstances to see how we’ve been negatively impacting our mental and emotional health. In addition, true recovery requires we go deep within ourselves to address and heal the trauma we’ve experienced. When we don’t incorporate trauma healing into our recovery program, we often see that our results are superficial and short-lived. We might experience something that reminds us of our trauma, that triggers us into relapsing or falling back into a depression. We might stay in relationships that are unhealthy because of our unhealed trauma, and then find that the dynamics in our relationship are contributing to our addictive patterns and mental health issues. We might continue to incur similar traumatic experiences because we haven’t fully healed from the original trauma. When we’ve endured trauma, we have to include trauma healing efforts in our work if we want to be truly successful in our recovery.
Releasing, Not Rehashing
Working with our trauma doesn’t mean we continue to punish ourselves with it by laboring over it and trying to work out every detail of what we’ve gone through. When we get into these habits, we can find ourselves rehashing the same thing over and over again without making much progress and not feeling any better. We want to get to the underlying fears and hurts involved in our trauma and find ways to make peace with them within ourselves. We can do this in multiple ways, including therapy, writing, and creative self-expression, and energy healing practices such as Reiki or tapping (Emotional Freedom Technique). Our goal is to have acceptance for our trauma so that we can healthily detach from it rather than allowing it to continue to persecute us.
Your Trauma Is Part Of Your Story, Not Who You Are
When we’re still consumed by our trauma, it can take over our lives. We can find ourselves obsessing about it, unable to stop thinking about it. It might contribute to panic attacks, suicidal thoughts, anxiety disorders, and other persistent mental health issues. We might develop compulsive behaviors and other unhealthy coping mechanisms. We can feel haunted by our trauma. When we’re able to make peace with our trauma, on the other hand, we’re no longer bombarded by memories of it. We no longer feel like we’re clinging to it, unable to let it go. We can accept it and make peace with it. When we think of it, we’re not still so triggered by it because we’ve addressed and healed the underlying wounds. When working to heal from our trauma, we give our sobriety a fighting chance, and we let go of the issues that have been contributing to our unwellness and therefore our addictive patterns.
The caring, compassionate staff of The Guest House is here to support you as you start your journey to recovery and healing. Call 855-483-7800 today for more information.