The horrors of drug abuse and addiction appear at the crux of several crises including drug overdose fatalities, rampant violence, and homelessness. While District leaders discuss medical-based solutions to resolve the widespread opioid crisis, psychiatrists and holistic health specialists underscore the significance of addressing trauma and its immense impact on chronic substance use disorder.
Substance use disorder is a “treatable mental disorder that affects a person’s brain and behavior, leading to their inability to control their use of substances like legal or illegal drugs, alcohol, or medications,” according to the National Institute of Mental Health.
Supporting studies have found links between people battling mental disorders such as depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder, and using drugs or alcohol as a means of self-medication.
In support of these findings, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) states that “Trauma is especially common in the lives of people with mental and substance use disorders. For this reason, the need to address trauma is increasingly seen as an important part of effective behavioral health care and an integral part of the healing and recovery process.”
Behind the Veil of Addiction
Dr. Ike Nnawuchi, medical director of MBI Health Services, the largest outpatient provider of mental health and substance abuse in Washington, D.C., has heard countless stories of abuse, depression, and rage that exist beneath the shambles of those addicted to drugs.
Nnawuchi detailed the story of a young lady who walked into his office in the middle of summer, referred through the Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program (CPEP). Seven months pregnant and visibly stricken with the disease of drug addiction, his staff scoffed at the positive urine results of phencyclidine (PCP), cocaine, and other drugs in her system while carrying a child.
Prepared to give her a virtuous speech on her seemingly reckless behavior, he was immediately humbled by her response as said to him, “It’s not my fault, I don’t want to be like this. It’s my life. Do you know why I’m wearing a long-sleeved shirt in the summer?” pulling up her sleeves to reveal her wrist.
“When I was a young girl, my grandfather used to tie me by my wrist to the bottom of the stairs in the basement and rape me every day. The only way I don’t feel the pain and don’t have those nightmares is when I use drugs.”
Left speechless, Nnawuchi instantly found that there is often an untold story behind those fighting drug addiction and the emotional scarring they may carry.
“You see a person on the street who is a drug addict, who is homeless, and you have to think about what came first. Is it the drugs or the life that they have lived?” Nnawuchi said. “You’re seeing these people and are judging them, but why are they like that? What happened to her to make her like this? Is it that she wants to be like this? No. She’s just trying to survive.”
Breathing to Sobriety
A survivor of early childhood abuse, Mama Ayo, a Certified Breathologist, and Transformational Facilitator of over 40 years, was once one of many young adults struggling with substance addiction. Years of drug abuse and recurring patterns eventually sparked her journey to unravel the root of her unyielding dependency.
“During my time of substance abuse, I began to study addictive behavior. I was working with populations and also around a lot of other people who were dealing with substance abuse. I also saw my father as an alcoholic,” Mama Ayo told the Informer. “I wanted to find out for myself why I used substances. There was a part of me that liked the euphoric aspect of it, but there was another part of me that recognized that I was suppressing pain.”
Her growing awareness of childhood trauma precipitated memories of profound discomfort around her father. Recalling his threatening and sexually abusive ways, her mental distress manifested in her behaviors as an adult, challenging her ability to feel safe or allow intimacy in her marriage later on.
The inner turmoil led Mama Ayo to further research various substance abuses, eventually finding correlations revealing that roughly 6 out of 10 women and 5 out of 10 men suffering from substance abuse have had exposure to trauma in early childhood.
“When I would use [drugs], I would suppress my emotional feelings. I felt angry. I felt depressed a lot. There was an impostor syndrome behavior, where I was already on radio, television, and print doing work and had a whole persona in the outer world. But in my inner world, I felt tight and stressed,” Mama Ayo said. “I felt frozen and numb in my body, and the drugs tended to stimulate me from that frozen state.”
It was a particular talk therapy session that unlocked the path to addressing her inexplicable attachment to drug abuse. Her therapist questioned her experience with sexual abuse, which at the time, she could not recall from suppressing the memories for the sake of her mental survival.
She began to dig through her consciousness, recalling interactions with her father, conversations, uncomfortable moments, and behaviors while simultaneously practicing breath work. Around the age of 45, Mama Ayo discovered a breathing technique that provided a deep dive into the subconscious mind, allowing her to feel deeply suppressed emotions.
“My dad was actually in my room at night, coming home from work, and was touching me inappropriately. I could not swing, and I did not cry. Instead, I held my breath. [I held] the fear and pain out of shame and guilt. I didn’t tell anybody,” Mama Ayo explained.
It was at this moment that Mama Ayo cut to the core of her healing by visibly identifying the source of her addiction, helping her to release years of emotional hardship that held her captive to substance abuse for years of her life.
Conscious connected breathing— a continuation of the in-breath and the outward breath with no pauses in between— is a healing method that opens the pathways of cellular memory. Such breathing increases the level of oxygen and opens the pathways that release subconscious memory stored within the limbic system.
Within the limbic system is the amygdala, the portion of the brain’s emotional behavior and responses that regulate fear, anxiety, and other heightened emotions.
Today, Mama Ayo said she practices this life-changing healing modality among others, to heal the mind and body from trauma.
“I’ve learned how to breathe and that’s what I still teach today. I truly believe that a big part of why as Black folks, Africans, we do a lot of drugs and drinking and suppressing feelings, is that we have cultural abuse that we suppress,” Mama Ayo said.
Mama Ayo explained trauma lies deeper than memories for which were alive.
“We have the ancestral abuse that we suppress. We have to suppress racism and all the systems of racism; the poverty; the feelings that we are not enough; the constant fear of violence in our community. We end up holding our breath a lot, and a lot of us, I believe, are in that state of suppression.”
