Does everyone with an addiction to mood altering substances have trauma?

This interesting question has been posed to me numerous times over my 29 years of treating addictive disorders. Well, what is the answer?

One answer is “I don’t know.” Another approach is “Why do you ask?” The latter approach can elicit more information and insight on the patient for the practitioner. It also lets the therapist off the hook. One could either give a blanket no or yes and most likely be wrong with either response.

As a young therapist, I felt I had to know everything and have all the answers. As a seasoned therapist, I have fewer answers and more questions. Therefore, for this purpose, I am not going to try to answer this question but pose it in a different way. I am going to change the question to “Do some people who have an addiction to mood altering substances suffer from trauma?” Well, that changes the question entirely. It also changes the answer. The answer is yes.

When I went to school to be a therapist over 30 years ago, my training in trauma, pharmacology, and neuroscience of addiction was limited in depth and scope. The lack of emphasis was not due to lack of awareness of the importance of these subjects in relation to addictive disorders but our limited understanding due to the technological limits of the time. The past 30 years have seen dramatic technological shifts that have increased our understanding.

What I soon discovered as a novice practitioner was that many of my patients experienced some form of trauma either prior to their addiction or coinciding with their addiction. Whether it was from childhood relational trauma (physical, sexual, emotional or other types of abuse), or veterans or their family with PTSD history, or the traumatic experiences of the addict or loved one suffered as a consequence of living decades with an addiction. Their stories were stories of trauma. Their stories were stories of generational pain. Their stories were of relapse because as soon as they stopped the addiction often the painful traumatic memories resurfaced. Hence, the addiction became the balm to obliterate their painful history.

Here is what I learned from these patients. First, if I was going to be effective as a healer, I needed not only to learn about trauma but to learn how to treat trauma. If you treat addiction, you treat trauma.

“While experiencing a trauma doesn’t guarantee that a person will develop an addiction, research clearly suggests that trauma is a major underlying source of addictive behavior.”
Sources estimate that 25 to 75 percent of people who survive abuse and/or violent trauma develop issues related to alcohol abuse. Addiction has been described as a pathological relationship with a mood altering substance or experience.

Carl Jung stated, “Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol or morphine or idealism.”
Bessel A. van der Kolk wrote, “Being able to feel safe with other people is probably the single most important aspect of mental health; safe connections are fundamental to meaningful and satisfying lives.”

So, in a sense, addiction is a false connection. It is not safe but terrifying. It is not connection but isolation. It is not meaningful but petty and small. It is not satisfying but empty.

Trauma activates survival strategies in humans. Some of these strategies can lead to addiction. The addiction can become a gateway to feeling safe in an unsafe world. Treat the addiction and the unsafe world returns. That is why it is so important to therapeutically address trauma and facilitate new and healthy connections.

Therefore, it looks like I did not answer the question. However, what I can answer is that the goal should always be to help people experience the freedom of recovery and help them on their journey of meaningful living.

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Jenni Schaefer Named Meadows Behavioral Healthcare Senior Fellow

Meadows Behavioral Healthcare announced today that Jenni Schaefer has joined the organization as a Senior Fellow for its continuum of treatment services and advocate for its specialty eating disorder program, The Meadows Ranch.

Meadows Behavioral Healthcare announced today that Jenni Schaefer has joined the organization as a Senior Fellow for its continuum of treatment services and advocate for its specialty eating disorder program, The Meadows Ranch. In this role, Schaefer will be instrumental in supporting the program’s leading-edge approach to neurobehavioral health treatment, which is integrated with trauma services. She will also share her knowledge, experience, and expertise with patients and staff.

Schaefer graduated summa cum laude from Texas A&M University with a degree in biochemistry and knows first-hand the devastating consequences of an eating disorder. Since recovering from her own eating disorder, she has carried her message of self-acceptance and triumph over adversity to the public.

Schaefer has authored several books, including Life Without Ed: How One Woman Declared Independence from Her Eating Disorder and How You Can Too, and contributed to anthologies like the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. She is a sought-after speaker on addiction and food disorders, relationships, depression, and career. She has appeared on Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz, The Today Show and Entertainment Tonight, as well as in print coverage from Cosmopolitan and The New York Times. She is a blogger for The Huffington Post, and her work has appeared in Publisher’s Weekly, The Chicago Tribune, Glamour, Shape, The Washington Times, Woman’s World, Seventeen, and more.

“Jenni is a multi-faceted individual and has a real passion for helping people overcome adversity and flourish in life,” said Sean Walsh, CEO of Meadows Behavioral Healthcare. “Her personal experience and knowledge of eating disorders and trauma, along with her high-energy message of the power of self-acceptance in overcoming self-sabotage, is a great lesson that will benefit the patients we help every day at The Meadows Ranch.”

Schaefer is Chair of the Ambassadors Council of the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) and recipient of their Westin Family Award for Excellence in Advocacy and Activism. She is a member of the International Association of Eating Disorders Professionals, the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, and of the Academy of Eating Disorders.

“After battling the debilitating effects of both an eating disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder, I now know that a deep healing is possible. I am incredibly grateful that my role as Senior Fellow will give me the chance to share this hope with others: recovery happens, and life can unfold in the most incredible, unimaginable ways,” Schaefer said. “Joining the team at The Meadows Ranch, alongside many of my heroes in the mental health field, is such a full circle—and surreal—story for me. Years ago, another Senior Fellow’s book, Dr. Peter Levine’s Waking the Tiger, provided me with the clarity and inspiration that I needed to face my own trauma. I am deeply honored to work with a program and team that I have admired ever since I began my work as an advocate.”

About Meadows Behavioral Healthcare

Meadows Behavioral Healthcare is the industry leader in providing treatment for people struggling with addiction, eating disorders, trauma, and related mental health conditions through its advanced integrated trauma resolution approach. The company’s programs — The Meadows, Claudia Black Young Adult Center, Gentle Path at The Meadows, Willow House at The Meadows, The Meadows Ranch, The Meadows Outpatient Center, and a variety of intensive workshops offered at Rio Retreat Center — are the premier choice for patients, families, and behavioral health professionals.

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The Importance of Family System Work When Treating an Adolescent with an Eating Disorder

When a child struggles with an eating disorder, it has a major impact on the entire family. Daily routines as well as coping and problem-solving behaviors are all negatively affected. It can seem as if the easiest things become overwhelming; just getting up for school on time involves frustration and fighting. In addition, families dealing with an eating disorder often say that it feels as if time stands still and that everything in their lives has come to focus on the eating disorder.

Research shows that a non-blaming approach to treatment in which the family is seen not as the cause of the problem but rather as a resource to support the adolescent in the recovery process is recommended. Additionally, working within the family system helps members understand the evolution of the family dynamics in relation to the development of the eating disorder. Think of it this way, by openly identifying and discussing these family dynamics, insight and learning can happen and change can be created. Family system work creates significant improvement and positive changes in terms of both the individual and family functioning.

As part of the therapeutic work, families benefit from exploring how they became caught up in the eating disorder. When family members are able to step back from the disorder and identify and practice using their strengths, they gain perspective and are able to discover solutions to their situation.

At The Meadows Ranch, family members are seen as partners in the recovery process. Let me emphasize that families are part of the solution. As the adolescent returns to the family system after treatment, clear expectations and family rules are a necessary part of the recovery process. Parents must “parent” the adolescent and avoid “parenting” the eating disorder. It is important to have discussions surrounding this when families are calm and empowered versus anxious and reactionary. Families can accomplish this with improved communication skills, clear expectations, and with the involvement of professionals.

Family system work is vital in the recovery process for adolescents with eating disorders. Although this work can involve many different people, perspectives, and experiences, healing can occur, understanding can be developed, and families can embrace recovery with elegance, dignity, resilience, and solidarity.

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Remuda Ranch at The Meadows Becomes The Meadows Ranch

The Meadows Ranch  has recently undertaken extensive capital improvements and programming enhancements for the benefit of its patients. Since its acquisition by The Meadows in 2012, Remuda Ranch has programmatically evolved with a leading-edge approach to eating disorder treatment that is integrated with trauma services. The new name reflects the core strength of its sister programs, which are rooted in The Meadows Model as developed by Pia Mellody and clinically guided by a team of world-renowned Senior Fellows.

“At The Meadows Ranch, we are committed to providing the highest level of eating disorder treatment for women and girls through an integrated trauma model in a safe, scenic, and nurturing environment,” said Sean Walsh, CEO of Meadows Behavioral Healthcare.

About The Meadows Ranch

The Meadows Ranch is an industry leader in treating girls aged 8-17 and adult women for eating disorders, trauma, and co-occurring disorders through its critical care/inpatient, residential, and partial hospitalization programs. To learn more about The Meadows Ranch, contact an intake coordinator at 877-231-3541, or visit http://www.meadowsranch.com.

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Effective Trauma Treatment for Eating Disorder Patients

Many individuals who suffer from trauma will use an eating disorder as a means to feel in control of something. This often occurs because trauma makes a person feel vulnerable and like they have no control over what happens to them in life. Eating disorders often blunt a person’s ability to experience emotions, which lessens intense anxiety, fear, and anger. In addition, an eating disorder can become a distraction from thoughts of trauma as eating disorders often become all consuming. At The Meadows Ranch, our treatment teams understand that to treat a patient with an eating disorder and trauma entirely, both need to be concurrently addressed since failing to treat one or the other will lead to a relapse and a decreased quality of life.

At The Meadows Ranch, we focus on nutritional rehabilitation at the start of treatment because without basic nutrition a person’s brain is offline and unable to participate successfully in therapy or really feel one’s emotions. The next layer is creating a safe environment that supports the trauma work. At The Meadows Ranch, we have a truly amazing group of professionals that genuinely care about each patient’s recovery with staff available around the clock to offer support.

In addition, people that have experienced trauma often engage in maladaptive coping skills, which may include eating disorder behaviors, self-injury, and shutting down to manage their intense emotions. In order to address these maladaptive coping skills our staff, including behavioral health techs, nurses, therapists, and dietitians, are trained in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT). DBT includes skills in mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, emotional regulation, and distress tolerance. If one of our patients is struggling, our entire staff are trained to help her find and practice an effective coping skill in the moment. This is particularly important when a patient is doing trauma work since she will be more vulnerable to intense emotions and memories that may require assistance to contain her emotions. At The Meadows Ranch, this support is offered 24-hours a day.

The final piece in treating trauma is processing the trauma that has occurred and allowing that trauma to become a chapter in the book of life instead of a novel as it can become when it is not adequately treated. At The Meadows Ranch, our therapists are specially trained in treating trauma, which includes being certified in Eye Motion Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), which is an evidence-based treatment for trauma.

The treatment of trauma and eating disorders is complex and multifaceted. At The Meadows Ranch, we have all of the tools available to help individuals recover from both trauma and their eating disorder treatment .

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