Addiction and Trauma

There are many ways in which posttraumatic experiences might be linked to addictive diseases. Early childhood experiences create a live long impression. Therefore, many individuals, who were misused in early childhood develop an addictive disease. However, also in later life it might be possible to get traumatized (for instance by having a severe accident or being a victim of rape). These kinds of traumatic experiences in adulthood were also observed to be causal factor of an addictive disease.

Within the surrounding of a Therapeutic Community setting, it is possible to enable alternative relationship experiences to the former addictive patients. Interpersonal encounter, which is built up on trust and honesty, might lead to a lifelong sobriety.

One of our major research intentions is to learn more about the association between severe traumatic experiences and addictive diseases.