PHE-commissioned report on young people’s
specialist substance misuse services by the
Children’s Society called for better joined up
working with child sexual exploitation and
abuse support services, with PHE’s director of
alcohol, drugs and tobacco, Rosanna
O’Connor, stating that it was important to
remember that young people did not ‘develop
substance problems in isolation’ (DDN,
February 2017, page 4).
One significant
problem is that this
data is not routinely
collected in the UK.
The document calls
for all treatment
services to record
anonymous adult
disclosure of abuse.
M
any survivors of
childhood sexual
abuse self-medicate
with drugs and
alcohol to ‘numb the
emotional pain of this
trauma’, says project consultant for the One
in Four report and senior lecturer at the
University of Roehampton, Christiane
Sanderson. ‘We are encouraging addiction
services to make the link between addiction
and the underlying childhood trauma and
signpost clients to specialist support,
following recovery, so they can achieve post-
traumatic growth in their lives.’
The document comprises 14 powerful and
harrowing first-person testimonies from
people who have experienced childhood
sexual abuse. Their ages range from 20s to
60s, and common to them all is the use of
substances. This can be to ‘feel euphoria or fill
the void’, says the charity, with drugs or
alcohol often providing ‘a mask to bury the
secret’ of abuse, the ‘corrosive feelings of
shame and self-hate associated with it, and to
keep negative mental health and suicidal
thoughts at bay’. The testimonies describe
journeys through addiction and recovery –
often after hitting ‘rock bottom’ – as well as
PTSD, anxiety, depression, self-harm and
repeated failures by professionals to offer
appropriate help.
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Many of the survivors also painfully detail
the impact on their emotional lives and
ability to relate to others, with fear and
mistrust of intimacy leading to loneliness and
isolation, and substances often becoming a
substitute for relationships. Drugs and alcohol
can be ‘life saving’, says the report, as for
some, emotions can be so ‘unbearable and
overwhelming that they are unable to
manage them, or they shut down to the
extent that they don’t feel anything at all’.
One in Four has developed a National
Lottery-funded film for treatment services to
promote awareness of the links between
childhood trauma and addiction, which urges
services to build links to specialist support so
that when clients are ‘stable following
recovery, their underlying trauma can be
addressed’. A guidebook for drug and alcohol
workers, GPs and others, Numbing the pain: a
pocket guide for professionals supporting
survivors of childhood sexual abuse and
addiction will also be launched in the summer.
While the organisation acknowledges that
funding remains a challenge for many services,
they still need to move beyond the ‘medical
model of dealing with addiction and begin to
provide support for survivors holistically’ as in
far too many cases they are still treating the
‘symptoms rather than the cause’, it states.
Without identifying the trauma of childhood
sexual abuse, it is not possible to ‘begin the
process of managing the trauma symptoms’.
Childhood sexual abuse is still ‘dealt with
poorly across addiction services’, says addiction
consultant to the study, Chip Somers, with
services under-resourced and residential
rehabs ‘out of the reach’ of most people.
‘We all know the numbers are immense,
yet this is an issue which still gets side-lined,’
he said at the report’s launch. ‘I don’t blame
the workers – I blame the system. The
workers don’t have the opportunity to engage
in proper sit-down time and talk with service
users. The work is not being done because
people don’t have the time. And I can see
those resources disappearing year-on-year.’
At the start of his 30 years in the
substance field there was a ‘general attitude
that you should never go near trauma and
child sexual abuse in any way,’ he stated.
‘What we are saying today is the opposite – if
you don’t do that work a lot of the other
recovery work we are doing can easily be
wasted, because we are not getting people to
a place of good stability and they are much
more likely to fall back into bad ways.’
It was vital to make sure that people felt
safe and properly supported, he said, and it was
‘really so easy’ to make a referral. ‘If you work in
a service that deals with drug and alcohol
addiction, then it is your responsibility to find
what’s available in your local area.’ DDN
View a 20-minute film for recovery
services at http://bit.ly/oneinfoursurvivors
SURVIVORS’
VOICES
‘MY STORY IS DIFFICULT TO
HEAR. I don’t want to hear it
myself. I don’t want it to be
about me. I don’t want it to
be true. Better to have no
story at all than to have
mine. It has taken me over
60 years to find the courage
to face the truth about my
childhood. Sixty years
during which I have
defended against the pain
of that knowledge in the
only way I knew how, by
dissociating so completely I wasn’t really there.’
Thomas
‘I WAS DRINKING TO NUMB MYSELF and block it all out. The
blackouts became frequent, landing me in some dangerous
situations. It’s as if I had no care for myself left anymore. I
felt like I died during the abuse and had nothing left to live
for. I went past the point of controlling my drink and I could
no longer predict where I would end up if I picked up the
bottle. It was like a game of Russian roulette.’
Claire
‘WHEN I WENT TO DRUG COUNSELLING WE TALKED ABOUT
TRIGGERS, cutting down, substituting, creating healthy
habits. By that time, the reason why I used had pretty much
been forgotten. I used because I used. That was just my
thing, my problem. I tried to talk about the sexual abuse a
few times. But I could not face it. I would go to a session and
yammer about my dad, anything to change the subject
from how I was, the deep fear and hurt that I carried.’
Eve
‘EVEN IN MY EARLY 20S WHEN I WENT TO MY GP WITH
DEPRESSION and told him about the CSA [child sexual
abuse] he only prescribed anti-depressants, which I used
in a suicide attempt. Even then in A&E they didn’t ask
why I had attempted suicide and didn’t offer me help. I
asked to be hospitalised, and although they didn’t want
to section me, I was not referred for help.’
Elizabeth
‘TO OTHERS WITH THE SAME SEXUAL ABUSE HISTORY, I
want to say you are not alone. Seek some help. Be kind to
yourself. There is a future. You are worth fighting for. Let
go and live.’
Aishya
Report at www.oneinfour.org.uk
May 2019 | drinkanddrugsnews | 11