Overcoming Trauma
Overcoming Intergenerational Trauma: Realistic Approaches for Addiction and Recovery Workers
Stanton,
As a frontline worker, I agree that to truly reduce addiction and drug-related deaths, society needs a transformation — especially for marginalized groups.
But how realistic is that?
For those of us working directly with individuals carrying trauma from childhood or even passed down from prior generations, the challenge feels overwhelming.
Is it possible for us, as support workers, to make a real impact on such deep-rooted issues?
How can we help people begin to heal and find hope, even when the societal barriers seem insurmountable?
Thanks,
Tony
[Note: This Dear Stanton Question has been created with help from AI]
Tony,
It’s true that we face an overwhelming task when we think of historic and ongoing inequality in the treatment of many individuals and communities.
If our task is to fix society, we’ll just be overwhelmed.
So let me address how you as a helper can make a difference.
Dealing with trauma in the here and now
We obviously face clients and groups among homeless and Native populations who are at the bottom of a series of oppressive and debilitating experiences. How do you reverse that?
Well, by recognizing inequality, prejudice and oppression — but not being overwhelmed by them.
We deal with individuals who may have had trauma and who have also made bad choices. They may be demoralized as a result.
Following are eight principles for helping to improve the person’s outlook and choices, along with their entire community’s.
- Don’t regard failures as endemic Trauma theory can have a downside when it convinces people they are permanent victims. We at the Life Process Program instead start with the premise that the person can change. That they should be optimistic going forward.
- Recognize that dealing with life on its terms is doable For people who have educations, jobs, intact families — even their mental health — these personal and social benefits are often unquestioned. For people without them, on the other hand, they often seem gargantuan, unreachable. But learning to cope with life is in fact a learnable process, for both the privileged and the disenfranchised. Try to help your clients see and believe that to be true.
- Learn that admitting problems or weaknesses is a way to gain strength We don’t want to heap scorn and negative judgments on people whose lives aren’t going well. Instead we want to let them in on a secret: that recognizing a weakness or a failure is a way to conquer it. You can then learn to deal with a problem or seek help in dealing with it.
- Life occurs in increments The greatest disservice you can do for people is to make them think you have some magical solution. That this magic answer will solve all their problems. Instead, they should know that they are embarking on a journey. And it’s not the end point to that journey that matters. It’s the progress along the way.
There WILL be setbacks. Know and accept those as best you can. They are not PERMANENT. Instead focus on the successes and progress in the journey.
- People can be helpful If a person has been abused— and even now is often treated unkindly—it can take a leap of faith for them to trust people. To ask for their help. This, of course, is where you come in as a helper. You WANT them to succeed. Always let them know that you want them to succeed. Let them FEEL that.
- Engage with people Their dealings with you are practices in looking to others for help and positivity. They should take that expectation with them wherever they go. Especially within their own community. This is the secret: expecting others to like you and be helpful is a self-fulfilling process. This of course includes friends and family.
That doesn’t mean whining! — it means reaching out and being positive with others.
- The world is a positive place for you It pays to have a positive outlook. There are certainly enough negatives in the world to focus on. But there are millions of positives too — flowers, birthdays, groups of people enjoying themselves, tasty food and good drinks, completing a necessary job — even cold water is a gift from the gods.
And — most important of all — these are positives you can reach and achieve through your own efforts. YOU are the source of your happiness and success.
- Life has meaning We all have a purpose for being here. There is something we can offer to others, to the world. Even if it’s not littering or picking up trash, or helping a child or the elderly enter a building, or smiling at someone, or offering them candy or a fruit.
THIS FEELING OF MAKING A CONTRIBUTION GROWS ON PEOPLE — AND YOU.
We cannot reverse years and generations of trauma. But we can make life better in the here and now — and going forward.
In fact, believing this — and helping others to see light ahead of them—is human beings’ greatest gift to themselves and others.
You can do these things, can’t you Tony?
In fact you are probably doing them!😊👏 ☀️