Addiction Notes
Was very useful in my Clinical Practice - Taken
from the Workshop by Dusty Miller, Ed.D – a Trauma
and Healing Expert - Jun 4th,
2002
Bangor, Maine.
Dusty Miller – Addiction/Trauma
Recovery/ Healing Body/Mind and Spirit.
Notes - Addictions and Trauma fit together like hand and
glove.
She uses a Cognitive/Relational Model – “Mind-Spirit.”
She uses the term “Relational Struggle” for Personality D/O
The Addictions:
ETOH
Eating D/O
Self-Injury
Drugs
Self-Sabotaging –sex, spending, gambling.
Spirit equals “connectedness” – def. Community of relations,
belief is something larger than the
individual
She uses the definition of God as “Higher Power - as in AA’s
12 –Step program or “Great Spirit.”
Why Addictions: They refocus, illusion of control, numbs,
confirms I’m bad, becomes a relationship, combats loneliness, illusion of a
relationship, distraction
Panic – Plan – Appropriate Resource
“Trauma Reenactment”
- Core Concept
Addictions are a re-enactment of earlier trauma, isolation
of the self/ self-soothing.
Addictions are paradoxical as they are an attempt to be in
control but make you out of control, more vulnerable; more filled with “pain
and shame”, not getting protected.
“Where is the who that is going to protect me”?
The core of the pain is the realization that no one is there
for you.
Terrorism of Children
Triadic Self
Part 1. The Abuser within represents the
impulse to self-harm through addictive behavior
Part 2. The Victim – within. Represents the
helpless wish of the self (the victimized child) to avoid the self-harming behavior.
Part 3. The Non-Protecting Bystander – “I
can’t stop it …Oh well”.
If the person is used to multiple traumas, they will habituate the dysregulation
of emotions.
Trauma work is being
integrated with Addictions.
Some suggested approaches:
- Explain why they are addicted.
- Explain how they have the choice
to authorize their own story, and this
gives them the power to change.
- Explain the Triadic Self
-
Bring in the idea of the “safe space”.
-
When we think about how we have internalized the pain and
that we were not protected, we can have
great feelings of rage/anger.
What she stressed is the “Protective Presence”, anything that decreases our fears
and emptiness, loneliness.
Work with clients to identify their protective partners,
i.e., music, pets.
“Think about someone who really
saw you protected you.”
Tell them to start to think that nothing will harm them”.
When working with feelings get the client to be specific, i.e. wherein
the body, an attempt at full details.
Clients often see the therapist as either as an abuser or a
non-protecting by-stander.
“ Do you feel I’m not protecting you?” It seems a
reenactment (transference).
If you get stuck in therapy,
simply go back to, “How does that make you feel in the body”? Or go to
relaxation exercises – i.e., 3 relaxation breaths.
“Sometime when I am abusing myself I am reacting to how I was abused myself”.
Working with dissociation is to get them to
return to their body as quickly as possible.
Relationships go inside the mind, and they seduce us.
Def. – Mental Health – The expanded capacity to be connected to the community.
4 Principles
- Recognizing and reinforcing resilience.
- Achieving abstinence from the addiction and self-harm.
- Recognizing and healing the wounds of non-protection
- Creating a sacred connection to the world beyond the self. Acts as a reassurance for the self and gives one a sense of social purpose.
Dusty incorporates exercises, i.e. tensing muscles groups then relaxing them.
Change the body first then change the mind.
Exercise: Cut out a ginger man self on paper. On one side
list all the things that happen to you under stress. On the other all the
things that are positive about your self-image. Another exercise that assists
with body awareness
To give up our trauma stories,
we have to go through many somatics, which is the refocus of our trauma stories
through physical pain. Example – headaches.
Dissociation – losing time, great chunks of it, over-use of
denial, derealization, and altered states.
Exploring Body Images
- What is the strongest part of your body?
- 2 What does your body do best?
The addict says of themselves, “The body, this body is my
enemy, it is not my friend.”
Dusty’s e-mail address: dustymi@aol.com
She used the song “Song of the inner child”. By Shanna Noll.
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