Verónica López 
MAYS LANDING, N.J., Feb. 20, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — The majority of people struggling with addiction to drugs and alcohol in this country have faced some kind of traumatic experience. Trauma results from an event, series of events, or set of circumstances experienced by an individual as physically or emotionally harmful or life-threatening with lasting adverse effects on the person’s functioning and mental, physical, social, emotional, or spiritual well-being.
However, trauma takes many forms such as seeing a friend overdose, a death of a loved one, a contentious divorce, sexual assault, or being homeless. Among adults, one study found that for individuals with substance use disorder (SUD), 37 percent also had post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and 97 percent had “trauma exposure.”
Recovery Centers of America’s (“RCA”) Trauma and SUD expert Trish Caldwell believes that those who struggle with an alcohol or drug addiction and who have also experienced some type of trauma in their lives need specialized treatment to address both their trauma and addiction. “Trauma in its many forms causes changes in brain chemistry which can make people more vulnerable to addiction. This change in physiology affects the functioning of the brain and special care with specific components is required to help these patients.”
The new “Breaking Free Trauma Track” at Recovery Centers of America at Lighthouse, in Mays Landing, NJ, is a four-week trauma course that runs alongside of addiction treatment. All staff at RCA Lighthouse are trauma-informed, whether in the Trauma track or the standalone SUD program, receiving specific training on how to respond to the symptoms of a trauma-impacted person. Care for traumatized patients in the Breaking Free track goes substantially further by providing individual and group therapy sessions run by specially-trained Certified Clinical Trauma Professionals. Meditation, mindfulness, trauma-informed yoga for body awareness and breathing, and other evidence-based trauma treatments are included to help patients move beyond their traumatic event in conjunction with substance use disorder treatment.
“Breaking Free” patients in the inpatient trauma track will learn to:
- Address Acute Stress Disorder and PTSD
- Use different mechanisms to keep grounded
- Understand and deal with trauma flashbacks and triggers
- Tackle faulty thinking
- Improve self esteem with positive self-dialogue and other therapies
Individualized trauma treatment continues through the different stages of recovery outside of inpatient care. The second half of the “Breaking Through” track, available in the RCA Lighthouse Outpatient Treatment program, offers patients Intensive Outpatient, General Outpatient, and Partial Care Programs. Patients on the Outpatient Trauma/SUD Track at RCA Lighthouse will continue learning to resolve past trauma and practice positive coping skills to confront the daily challenges of life, thereby breaking the trauma-addiction connection.
Recovery Centers of America (1-800 Recovery) provides evidence-based comprehensive addiction treatment at six inpatient residential facilities in Mays Landing, New Jersey; Devon, Pennsylvania; Westminster and Danvers, Massachusetts; and Earleville and Waldorf, Maryland. A full spectrum of Outpatient treatment is also provided at many of these facilities and in Vorhees, NJ, in addition to a Medication-Assisted Treatment facility in Trenton, NJ.
