The Link Between Trauma/Abuse and Addiction
Your walking down the street going along on your day in these busy surroundings that you call home. As you are making your way along you see a young man standing there on the street corner. He is haggard and skinny, with dirty clothing. He looks tired and worn out with such sadness in his eyes. He is holding a sign
“I am homeless, hungry and tired would you please help me”
You stop for a moment and eye this stranger as many thoughts go through your head. Why is this healthy young man begging for money? Get a job bum, you are just being lazy! I am not going to give you any help because you put yourself there! This man is foolish wasting his time, when he could be working right now!
These are the many thoughts people do think as they go on by. I have even thought to myself, “Why stand here and beg for money when you could work”?
In this day and age unfortunately, it is normal for us to think in such a way, because society has placed many preconceived notions in our heads. We fall victim to the noise! We buckle to the pressures of what encompasses our sight and sound every single day.
It is the sad reality!
We must take a step back and look at the bigger picture. It is time to break the stigmas of society. Not all homeless people choose to be homeless. What I mean by that is this…
Imagine this:
It is a cool fall day and many children are outside playing enjoying that last bit of summer sun before the cold winter snow is upon us. As they run up and down the streets and the sun begins to set, the children begin to disperse to their warm homes with the smell of yummy food cooking on the stove.
The sound level begins to dull as one by one these little soldiers march on home, but there on the street corner stands a little boy with no coat and a runny nose. He is dirty as he has not taken a bath or shower in days. His tattered clothing tells a tale that his mouth never speaks.
Sunset has fallen and he is alone with nowhere to go but home. You see home for him, was a different kind of place. This is a place of dysfunction and deceit. As he slowly drags himself home because his belly is so hungry and he is cold, he dreads stepping through that door because he does not know what he will walk into.
Uncertainty – Pain – Abuse – Sadness – Drama – Dysfunction - Fear.
This little boy is living a life of silent pain, damaged by the people who were supposed to love and protect him. As he grows a bit older, he seeks different ways to dull the pain of all that is hidden so deep inside. As he watched the adults that surround him, he begins to mimic their behaviors and decides to experiment with alcohol and drugs.
Ohh, those moments of numbness feel so good. “I am floating”!
As his inner child screams for help, “save me, save me from this hell”, His outer shell buries him with the residue of his consumptions.
As the neighborhood changes and the children grow, he sticks out like a sore thumb because as the other kids are progressing forward, he is falling into a pit of disaster, as he is labeled a loser, a bad seed, and the laughing stock of his surroundings!
Anger grows, the addiction begins and this young man has had enough of being the whipping board for his dysfunctional family. He runs away…. Out of the frying pan and into the fire he goes as those hideous streets eat him up alive.
He will now do anything to numb this pain, and that means doing the unthinkable to obtain the drugs he pumps into his tattered, broken sole. So now he steals, he fights, he sells his own body as the streets bleed him dry of everything he ever was until there is nothing left but an empty shell of a young man that used to be.
The life of addiction induced by trauma, abuse and neglect. It is not a pretty picture!
Your walking down the street and you see a homeless young man…
What will you think?
There are so many broken people out there traveling along the hard road called life! The damage of the past to much for them to bear, so they turn to the dark side of addition to relieve the pain.
This temporary high so deceitful as the addict craves more and more!
How do we break the cycle?
How do we help that young man or woman on the street lost and alone?
What do we do for the children who are susceptible to this type of life style?
These are great questions that we need to be asking one another.
How can we help?
We need to continue to educate society on the reality of addictions, and how it connects to the “bigger picture”. If we can extend that helping hand and offer someone a way out, we should be able to do so.
If you know of someone who is addicted to drugs or alcohol please offer them hope.
There is a way out and those first steps are the hardest, but if you show someone who is struggling that they are worth the battle, you may just save a life!
Nothing is perfect or easy, about any of this, but we must continue to try. Bringing awareness every step of the way.
Embrace the Journey!
God Bless
Lisa Zarcone
Author – Child & Mental Health Advocate – Public Speaker – Blogger – Inspirationalist
ATTENTION: HERE ARE A LIST OF NUMBERS – If you see someone struggling please pass them along -- Be the hand that guides the fallen out of the darkness
National Crisis Hotline – 1-800-273-talk
Runaways – 1-800-runaway
National Suicide Prevention hotline – 1-800-273-8255
National Child Abuse Hotline – 1-800-422-4453
Substance Abuse hotline (GateHouseTreatment) 1-855-211-1490
National Help Line – SAMHSA - 1-800-662-4357(HELP)
National Information Service for addiction – 1-800-487-4889
National Human Trafficking Hotline – 1-888-373-7888 or
Text “help” or “info” to 233733
NAMI (MENTAL HEALTH) 1-800-370-9085
TEXT - crisis to 741741 - free and confidential
There is a way out!
The suicide hotline - just dial 988
