Many alcoholics report coexisting psychiatric disorders such as social phobia, agoraphobia, and post traumatic stress disorder.
New research indicates that childhood abuse – sexual, physical or both – may play a role…
in the later development of coexisting psychological issues among alcoholics.
Findings published in the March issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research (ACER) have uncovered the important role that an environment of childhood abuse – sexual, physical or both – appears to play in the development of psychiatric comorbidity among alcoholic patients.
“Our findings clearly indicate that childhood abuse – more specifically, sexual abuse and combinations of sexual and physical abuse – is an important factor for the presence of comorbid anxiety disorders in treated alcoholics, particularly regarding social phobia, agoraphobia and post traumatic stress disorder,” said Willemien Langeland, a freelance trauma researcher at the University of Amsterdam and the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, as well as first author of the study.
Langeland added that compared with other environmental risk factors, childhood sexual and “dual” abuse contribute independently to a more severe clinical profile, that is, more comorbid diagnoses in abused versus non-abused alcoholic patients. “This has not been previously demonstrated in treated alcoholics,” she said. “In addition, more severe and intrusive forms of early sexual abuse as well as early multiple traumas are associated with a more complex symptom constellation that includes dysthymia (a chronic mood disorder) and suicidality.”
“This study and a few others clearly show that seeing alcoholics only as people having an alcohol problem should be a thing of the past,” said Onno van der Hart, professor of psychopathology of chronic traumatization in the department of clinical psychology at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. “Very often the alcohol dependency or abuse is an indissoluble part of a history of childhood maltreatment or other adverse life events or conditions, as well as a range of other mental health problems. Insight into such complex patterns will lead to the realization that the simple treatment goal of ‘stopping drinking’ makes sense only when the overall treatment is geared toward this more complex system of problems.”
Researchers collected data during eight months (September 1994 – May 1995) from 155 alcoholics (122 males, 33 females) applying for treatment in a center for substance-use disorders. All study participants were assessed for demographics and treatment history through use of the European Addiction Severity Index. Numerous childhood stressors were indexed by the Structured Trauma Interview, and lifetime diagnoses of major depression, dysthymia, panic
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Great article Bill.
Keep up the good work
That’s something nice to know; at least I’m learning something new from this blog site. So that’s one of the reasons why some people become alcoholics. I kept on wondering why some people become really addicted in alcohol. If they didn’t have that bad childhood experience they wouldn’t have this kind of addiction.
I know it most likely sounds like a cliche but most alcoholics really are *trying* to drink their troubles away.
Many individuals who were molested or have been through other traumatic events in their lives, never go a day without thinking about what happened.
So what better way to avoid thinking about the issue? If you think about it every night, drink until you can’t remember anything from the night before, right?
Wrong! The trouble is, it becomes a vicious cycle. You always remember again the next day. And then you feel the need to do it all over again.
The intense trauma will never be forgotten. But it is amazing how many people think that it can.
I am not at all surprised to see that there appears to be correlation between childhood abuse, especially sexual abuse, and adult alcoholism, however I don’t agree with the comment that there would be no addiction if it weren’t for a bad childhood experience. There are plenty of people battling alcohol addictions who were never abused as children.
Alcoholism is never an isolated problem; it is usually compounded with other psychological and mental disorders. This is pobably why alcoholism is difficult to treat as the problem involves more than the physical alcohol addiction.
This article makes perfect sense. A lot of people make an attempt to mask their problems by drinking. Even people who wouldn’t be classified as having an addiction problem, are usually trying to drink something unhappy from their lives. It can be as simple as having a bad day at work.
I was sexually abused as a child. I also had to deal with death very early in life. I started out an alcoholic, then went into addiction. Now that I am in recovery I’ve come to a point where these issues HAD TO be addressed or I couldn’t continue to learn and grow in my program of sobriety. It’s been my experience that alcoholism and addiction are just some of the symptoms of my mental disorders.
This is a very pathetic situation. Sexual abuse for a child is too bad. Society must treat them and take care of such children. Because there are many chances for them to go beyond getting addicted to alcohol. They will take a hell lot of time to recover but by that time everything would have got over in their life.
This is information that I have never known about. I am not surprised to find out that there is a relationship between them though. I know that most people including myself have only heard about the connection between post dramatic stress disorder and war times. But knowing that this can happen to people who suffer from abuse as well is no surprise at all. In fact I can say that I know people that suffer from them both and it would explain a lot about the behaviors.
It is not necessary that an alcoholic person had an abused childhood. There are genuine cases but many aren’t. What I feel is that a person who is an escapist has the tendency of getting addicted to some thing or the other so that the whole focus is changed.Why go in for a vent that will kill you.
This line, “Very often the alcohol dependency or abuse is an indissoluble part of a history of childhood maltreatment or other adverse life events or conditions, as well as a range of other mental health problems.” is true. There are deeper problems that many do not realize.
.-= Barry´s last blog ..The bigger picture =-.
I was sexually abused as a child by several different men. two of the men only made me touch them. The other was my brother-n-law and he did this for several yrs. The bad thing is that my sister knew it was happening and let it. I am an alcoholic. I have been one since I took my first drink of wine at the age of twelve. I truly hate the person that I am. Im a bitch most of the time and most people think that im just plain hateful. only the few friends that I have know about the abuse. I never told my mom or any family member about the abuse, nor have I told my now 3 adult daughters. I also am a very good closet drinker. My family doesnt know, only my very best friend of 30 yrs knows. She is the reason I started attending AA mtgs. She has carried me my whole life and Ive hurt her many times, but just resently I literally devistated her with my words. She said fix it this time or else, I have taken a toll on her. I have to let go of this resentment and anger some how. If I lose my best friend because I cant stop drinking, I will surely just drink myself to death.