People often use the word trauma in everyday speech to mean a highly stressful or upsetting event. However, the key to understanding trauma is the understanding that it refers to extreme stress that completely overwhelms a person’s ability to cope. If you believe that a trauma therapy program may be helpful for you or a loved one, call Crestview Recovery today to learn more about our life-changing trauma therapy program.
What is Trauma?
A person’s subjective and unique life experience determines whether or not an event is traumatic. There is no official differentiation between stress, trauma, and adaptation. People who experience only small amounts of stress have different experiences with stress compared to people who have experienced stress at high levels. Stress reactions can be both psychological and physical. Different experts in the field define trauma in different ways.
What is a Traumatic Event?
A threat to life, body, or sanity is considered a traumatic event. For adults, trauma is caused by exposure to the threat of death, serious injury, sexual molestation, or extreme stress. Traumatic events involve things we can’t understand. Learning about trauma experienced by a loved one is also a form of trauma. Trauma can be caused by:
- Direct exposure: an event happening to you
- Witnessing an event happening around you
- Experiencing repeated or extreme aversive effects of trauma
- Learning about an event affecting a close family member, friend, or loved one
During psychological trauma, a person loses their ability to stay present, understand what is happening, integrate feelings, and make sense of the experience. Trauma-informed therapy offered at Crestview can help people work through their trauma.
How To Deal With Trauma
Humans develop a plethora of strategies to cope with trauma. Some of these strategies are helpful; for example, exercise, being aware of surroundings, and protecting loved ones are beneficial. Some people develop unhealthy coping mechanisms in response to trauma. These reactions include narcissism, drug abuse, and process addictions.
People who have experienced severe trauma will often benefit from a variety of mental health programs, trauma therapy in particular. Controlling behavior and drug use seem like vastly different behavior types, yet both are used to cope with trauma. Certain actions cause people to experience a temporary rush of relief from the effects of a traumatic experience. When people become psychologically dependent on these coping mechanisms, they often face social and occupational consequences. Using a temporary solution to address a permanent problem often results in mental unrest and addiction.
Mental Health Treatment
Crestview Recovery offers a model of integrated treatment–including a multi-disciplinary team approach–at our mental health treatment and addiction center to treat the following conditions:
- Trauma
- Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
- Anxiety
- Grief
- Depression
- Stress
- Chronic Pain
Trauma Therapy in Oregon
Evaluation and monitoring of co-occurring mental health disorders can help people heal their emotional wounds in a safe and supportive environment. One of the most important parts of addiction treatment at Crestview involves addressing and working through trauma. Individual counseling programs can help people feel comfortable enough to open up about past trauma. We also use trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy to pinpoint the source and type of thoughts that lead to addictive tendencies. At the same time, we offer strategies proven to keep people from sliding back into old habits. We believe that changing your behavior will not provide a stable foundation for your recovery if you do not alter your thinking.
If you find yourself mistreating people for reasons that have nothing to do with them, trauma-informed therapy at Crestview recovery can help you heal from trauma and move on with your life. For more information, contact the Crestview Recovery treatment center today by calling us at 866.262.0531.
Since 2016, Dr. Merle Williamson, a graduate of Oregon Health Sciences University, has been the Medical Director at Crestview Recovery, bringing a rich background in addiction medicine from his time at Hazelden Treatment Center. He oversees outpatient drug and alcohol treatments, providing medical care, setting policies, detox protocols, and quality assurance measures. Before specializing in addiction medicine, he spent 25 years in anesthesiology, serving as Chair of Hospital Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee and Chief of Anesthesia at Kaiser Permanente. This experience gives him a unique perspective on treating prescription drug addiction.
