Melissa Alton
LMHC, NCC, CCMHC, EMDR in Private Practice, USA
Title: To use or to be used: The relationship between trauma and substance use
Biography
Biography: Melissa Alton
Abstract
Substance use and trauma typically manifests metaphorically through to use or to be used. For in one moment, a substance
is used to feel happy, numb while in the next a person is used for another to feel happy, numb. In this instance both the
substance and that person become an object. When occurring together they are oft en mutually reinforcing to one another
and feed off the reward of instant gratifi cation. Th is object is simply for use and it becomes ingrained into identify, self. Th us
facilitating the illogical disconnect of use and being used to believe that the ones needs are truly fulfi lled or perhaps not caring
if one it is used. For an example a young woman who works as a prostitute to pay for her substances. She will oft en share that it
does not feel real to her, she had to do what she had to do to get her fi x. However, due to this cyclic relationship, the pain gets
buried and forms scars.