Trauma has a way of leaving a lasting impact, especially when it’s unresolved. For many, the pain doesn’t just fade — it lingers, showing up in their emotions, relationships, and even the choices they make to cope. This can often lead to turning to substances as a way to numb the feelings or escape the memories. While it might seem like a temporary fix, this approach can quickly spiral into a cycle that’s hard to break.
If you or someone you care about feels stuck in this cycle, understanding the connection between unresolved trauma and addiction is a powerful first step. In this blog, we’ll break down what unresolved trauma is, how it affects the brain and behavior, and how it can lead to substance use. Most importantly, we’ll explore how to break free and start healing, addressing both the trauma and the addiction at its core.
What is Unresolved Trauma?
Unresolved trauma happens when a person goes through something upsetting or hurtful but doesn’t have the chance to process or heal from it fully. This could be anything like a car accident, losing a loved one, or being in an abusive situation. If the person doesn’t get the proper support or doesn’t deal with the emotions from that experience, those feelings can stick around. Over time, these unresolved feelings can make a person feel anxious, sad, or angry at varying levels of intensity.
How Trauma Impacts the Brain
When a person experiences trauma, their brain’s normal functioning can be disrupted. The brain controls emotions, memory, and decision-making; trauma can change how it works.
Processing Emotions
For example, the part of the brain that controls emotions and reactions, called the amygdala, can become overactive after trauma. This can make a person feel constantly alert, anxious, or afraid, even when there is no immediate danger.
Decision Making
Another part of the brain, the prefrontal cortex, helps us make decisions and control our impulses. Trauma can make this part of the brain less active, which might make it harder for someone to think clearly or make calm decisions.
Memory
Lastly, trauma can also affect the hippocampus, which is important for memory. When someone has unresolved trauma, their memories of the traumatic event can get stuck, making it difficult for them to move on or even remember things in a healthy way.
How Trauma Leads to Substance Abuse
Unresolved trauma can overwhelm a person’s emotions, making it hard to cope. Substances like drugs or alcohol may seem like an easy way to escape. For some, this leads to dual diagnosis. This means they struggle with both a mental health condition, like PTSD, and a substance use disorder. Treating both issues together is key to breaking the cycle.
Here’s what that journey can look like:
Temporary Relief
When a person uses a substance, it affects the brain’s reward system, releasing chemicals like dopamine that make them feel better or more relaxed, even if just for a short time. This gives them a sense of relief from their emotional pain and helps them forget about the trauma for a little while.
Numbing the Pain
Substances can block or numb the emotional pain linked to the trauma. For someone who’s struggling to face their past or deal with overwhelming feelings, this might feel like the only option to manage the distress.
Avoiding the Issue
Rather than dealing with the root cause of their emotional struggles, using substances allows a person to avoid confronting their feelings. It becomes a way of escaping from reality instead of facing the painful emotions that come with healing.
How This Establishes a Cycle
The use of substances to cope with unresolved trauma sets in motion a damaging cycle that can become progressively harder to break over time. As the individual continues to rely on substances, several key patterns start to emerge, reinforcing both the trauma and the addiction. Here’s a deeper look at how this cycle works:
Temporary Relief Becomes Shorter and Less Effective
At the beginning, using substances may offer a sense of temporary relief. For example, alcohol or drugs might numb the emotional pain, anxiety, or sadness associated with the trauma. However, this relief is only short-term. Over time, the brain becomes accustomed to the substance as a way to “manage” feelings, and its effectiveness starts to wear off. As a result, the person may need to increase the amount they use to feel the same level of relief, or they may start using substances more frequently.
This diminishing effect leads to what is known as tolerance, where the person needs more of the substance to achieve the same emotional numbness or high.
Increased Dependence
As the brain adapts to the substance, it begins relying more heavily on it to regulate emotions. This is where the addiction starts to develop. The brain, which was initially using substances as a temporary coping mechanism, now starts to use them more out of necessity. Without the substance, the person might feel intense emotional distress, anxiety, or even physical withdrawal symptoms, making them more likely to continue using the substance.
The increased dependence on the substance often leads to a sense of loss of control. The person may begin using substances more often than they intended, or they may use them in dangerous ways, all to suppress or escape from the emotional pain caused by the trauma.
Escalating Trauma Symptoms
As the cycle continues, the trauma itself isn’t actually being processed or healed — it’s just being pushed down or ignored. This can cause the trauma symptoms to worsen over time. The person may start to experience more intense emotional reactions, such as:
- Heightened anxiety or panic attacks
- Increased depression or feelings of hopelessness
- Irritability or emotional outbursts
- Flashbacks or intrusive thoughts related to the traumatic event
Rather than finding relief, the person ends up feeling trapped in a cycle of addiction, numbing the pain only to face even more intense emotional turmoil later on. The trauma symptoms become more severe as the brain’s emotional regulation system gets out of balance — further increasing the need for substances to suppress those feelings.
The Need to Escape Becomes a Habit
Over time, using substances to escape becomes ingrained as a habitual behavior. Instead of facing or processing the trauma, the individual starts to automatically turn to drugs or alcohol whenever they feel overwhelmed, stressed, or sad. Substance use becomes the person’s default way of coping with any negative emotion or situation, even if it leads to negative consequences.
This creates a situation where the person is no longer just using substances to feel better — they’re using them out of habit and compulsion. Their behavior is shaped by the need to avoid the emotions that come with trauma, even if it means worsening their situation in the long run.
Self-Sabotage and Guilt
As the cycle continues, the individual might begin to feel ashamed of their behavior. They may see how the addiction is affecting their life — relationships, work, and mental health — and feel guilty for using substances to cope. However, the feelings of guilt and shame can often make the situation worse.
Rather than helping the person seek out healthier ways to cope, these negative emotions often cause them to feel more isolated and trapped. The guilt and self-blame feed the cycle: they use substances to cope with the guilt, but that only increases the addiction and deepens the trauma.
Avoiding True Healing
The most dangerous part of this cycle is that it prevents the individual from ever truly addressing the root cause of their distress: the unresolved trauma. Because substances offer a temporary escape, the person never learns healthier coping mechanisms or confronts the trauma in a way that would lead to emotional healing.
Without professional intervention, the trauma remains untreated and continues to affect the person’s life, while the addiction deepens. This cycle can become very hard to break, especially if the person feels isolated, unsupported, or unable to see a way out.
How to Heal Trauma and Break the Addiction Cycle
To truly break free from this cycle, it’s essential to address both the trauma and the addiction. Therapy, counseling, and support groups can help individuals work through their traumatic experiences and learn healthier ways to cope. This often involves:
- Understanding the trauma and how it’s impacted their life
- Learning emotional regulation techniques to manage intense feelings
- Finding healthier ways to cope with stress and pain, such as mindfulness, exercise, or creative outlets
With the right support, individuals can begin to heal from both the trauma and the addiction, allowing them to reclaim control over their lives and break the destructive cycle.
Take the First Step Toward Healing
Unresolved trauma and addiction can feel overwhelming, but you don’t have to face it alone. At Northpoint Washington, our addiction treatment programs provide support and tools to address the pain at its source. Our compassionate team specializes in helping patients heal from trauma while building healthier coping mechanisms for long-term recovery.
Contact us today to learn how our programs can help you or your loved one reclaim a sense of peace and control. Healing is possible, and it starts with reaching out.