How Does Trauma Impact Mental Health?
Trauma can take a toll on your mental health and lead to the development of one or more mental health disorders. As a diverse set of experiences and interactions, trauma does not care about age, gender, race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status. With trauma-informed care, we can address how trauma impacts your mental and physical health.
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) publication Trauma-Informed Care in Behavioral Health Services, trauma leads to numerous biological changes and stress responses, including changes in your core beliefs about the world and people. Those traumatic experiences shift the way you navigate life and leave you feeling unsafe and alone in every aspect of your life. However, access to social support and healthy coping strategies and skills can be the difference between long-term mental health struggles and leading a healthy life with mental stability.
Mental Health Disorders
Some mental health disorders that can develop from trauma include:
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Depression
- Anxiety disorders
- Acute stress disorder (ASD)
- Borderline personality disorder (BPD)
In addition to how trauma impacts mental health, trauma can also lead to substance use disorder (SUD) and other interrelated physical conditions.
Trauma and SUD
The relationship between trauma and SUD is deeply connected, as your emotional response to the stressors of trauma can lead to unhealthy thinking and behavior patterns. Some of the unhealthy thinking and behavior patterns that can come out of trauma include avoidance behavior seen in self-medicating with substances like alcohol. As noted in an article from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN), SUD can develop as a means to distance yourself and manage the distress associated with traumatic experiences. After a traumatic event or the buildup of traumatic experiences, you can feel overwhelmed by your physical and emotional response to those stressors, so you seek to numb those emotions with substances that diminish your senses.
What Is Trauma-Informed Care?
When you experience co-occurring disorders interrelated with trauma, you can find individualized support in approaches like trauma-informed care. Trauma-informed care is a recovery approach that reconsiders the way trauma and co-occurring disorders are treated. The focus is shifted from how we should treat this condition to how we can best support you on your journey to recovery. In this way, trauma-informed care is designed to treat the whole person in body, mind, and spirit.
How Can Trauma-Informed Care Support Me in Recovery?
As an approach to recovery, trauma-informed care is focused on supporting the whole person, which means recognizing trauma in all its different forms and the impact it has had on you individually and in your family history in the form of generational trauma. Moreover, we work together to recognize trauma, see the signs and symptoms of trauma, integrate that knowledge, and avoid re-traumatization to support you in finding a path toward lifelong recovery that meets your needs and goals. With the core principles of trauma-informed care, we can support you in building healthier thinking and behavior patterns for better mental and physical health outcomes.
The 6 Core Principles of Trauma-Informed Care
Safety
Developing settings and activities that ensure the client’s physical and emotional safety
Collaboration
Engaging in shared decision-making for care with the client and care provider
Empowerment
Supporting clients in the development of their treatment and strengthening their belief in their ability to heal
Trustworthiness and transparency
All care decisions regarding treatment options and service providers are clearly explained and created with the client
Peer Support
Shared experiences are an integral part of recovery as peers are paired together to support each other
Humility and responsiveness
Acknowledging and addressing how biases, stereotypes, and historical trauma impacts treatment from the client and care provider’s perspective
To learn more about trauma and trauma-informed care, visit our Trauma Recovery page.
Trauma-Informed Care at Emerge Recovery TX
At Emerge Recovery TX, we believe in the holistic nurturing of trauma-informed care to support you in body, mind, and spirit. We have seen firsthand how trauma has impacted women’s ability to make progress on their mental health and/or SUD recovery journey. Our wide range of outpatient services is designed to consider the traumatic aspect of your mental health and/or SUD as we treat and support you on your recovery journey. Therefore, through trauma-informed care, we can support you in building basic life skills, developing coping strategies, and learning how to change your thinking and behavior patterns to lead a principled fulfilling life in long-term recovery.
Programs for Trauma-Informed Care
Individual therapy
- Identifying and processing unhealthy patterns
- Developing and setting goals
- Group therapy and processing groups
- Building life skills
- Developing coping strategies
- Forming support networks
- Educational groups
- Sharing experiences
- Learning through assigned curriculum
- Family therapy
- Building healthier connections with loved ones
- 12-Step facilitation therapy
- Supporting specific needs
- Building connections between traditional 12-Step and clinical support
- Trauma-informed yoga
- Supporting mindfulness, self-awareness, and healing
- Drug and alcohol monitoring
- Providing testing and accountability based on client needs and experiences
- Aftercare
- Fostering healthier relationships
- Building coping and life skills for long-term recovery
- Relapse prevention
- Weekly monitoring and support
To learn more about our trauma-informed programs, visit our Programs page.
Trauma-informed care can support you in building coping and life skills to manage and recover from interconnected disorders and trauma. At Emerge Recovery TX, we use trauma-informed care to support and treat the whole person in body, mind, and spirit in long-term recovery. Call us today at (737) 237-9663 to learn how trauma-informed care can support you on your recovery journey.