After a traumatic affair people often report using alcohol to relieve their symptoms of anxiety.

After a traumatic affair people often report using alcohol to relieve their symptoms of anxiety, irritability, and depression. Alcohol may relieve these symptoms because drinking compensates for deficiencies in endorphin activity following a traumatic experience. Within minutes of prospect to a traumatic event there is an increase in the plain of endorphins in the brain. During the time of the trauma, endorphin evens remain elevated and help stupefy the emotional and physical pain of the trauma. However, after the trauma is from one side of to the other endorphin levels gradually decrease and this may lead to a period of endorphin withdrawal that can last from hours to days. This period of endorphin withdrawal may give rise to emotional distress and contribute to other symptoms of posttraumatic stres disorder (PTSD) Because alcohol use increases endorphin activity, drinking following trauma may be used to compensate this endorphin withdrawal and thus avoid the associated emotional distress. This mould has important implications for the treatment of PTSD and alcoholism. tonic WORDS: trauma; learned helplessness; endorphins; position traumatic stress disorder; AOD (alcohol or other drug) use; psychological stress; physiological stress; adrenocorticotropic hormone; corticotropin RH; sex differences; treatment; literature review

Margaret was raised in a chaotic environment, experiencing extensive physical abuse first on her alcoholic parents, then later in an abusive relationship. During the same particularly disturbing event, she recalled being rigorously beaten, then locked in a closer bleeding, for several hours. She also recalled sexual abuse at her intoxicated father from the ages of 8 to 14 When Margaret was 16 she was involuntarily hospitalized following a suicide attempt, and subsequently became involved in a sexual relationship with a male patient who forced her to participate in arrange sadomasochistic sex several times during a 6-month period. Following this experience, Margaret began abusing a variety of substances, primarily alcohol. When she at handed for treatment at age 38 she had undergone at least 10 prior treatment attempts for alcohol supporter She reported drinking up to a case of beer daily, which she said she used primarily to help her be still and to suppress nightmares of the sexual abuse, and also in answer to the trauma reminders she commonly experienced in daily life. When abstinent from alcohol, Margaret reported extremely vivid and disturbing nightmares, penetrating agitation and jumpiness, and acute reactivity to a variety of environmental rods that reminded her of her traumatic experiences.

Unfortunately, this example is far too used by all as people like Margaret, after an experience of sexual or physical victimization, divert to alcohol to relieve symptoms of anxiety irritability, and depression. In this paper we ready a new model to help explain in what way trauma's effects on psychological distress may influence alcohol consumption.

The experience of psychological trauma (experiencing or witnessing an termination involving actual or threatened death or serious injury of self or others [APA 1994]) does not necessarily lead to long-term emotional distress or alcohol abuse. Rather, the likelihood of experiencing adverse inferences is related to the victim's ability to cope with the trauma. Consider the following brace hypothetical examples. Barbara and Jan the couple attend a seminar on crime prevention. in succession her way home, Barbara collisions a man who points a fire-arm to her head and demands her cash Caught off guard, Barbara turn to ices in terror, forgetting everything she has just learned in the class about to what extent to protect herself; the assailant takes her pocketbook and step quicklys off with $50 and all of Barbara's credit cards. Although Barbara avoided physical harm, she was left with the feeling that she had no dominion government over the outcome of the incident (i.e., she experienced uncontrollable trauma) and, as a arise experienced feelings of terror and helplessness. Compare Barbara's situation to Jan's. onward her way home from the same crime prevention class, Jan rencounters another man who points a fire-arm at her head and demands her coin Jan is also afraid nevertheless manages to keep her wits, and recalling the same of the strategies she just learned in the class, she sends her pocketbook past the gunman down the way The assailant runs after the pocketbook and Jan hies in the opposite direction. In comparison to Barbara, Jan experienced controllable trauma, because she took direct action that influenced the issue of the incident and provided the means for her acknowledge escape. Both women experienced similar emotions and tangible los as a come of the incident, and the one and the other escaped unharmed, but Barbara felt a pervasive perception of helplessness after the crime and felt that her self-defense class had been in vain, whereas Jan felt a intellect of control over the trauma because of her swift action that enabled her to escape. As a come Barbara experienced more severe posttraumatic symptoms than did Jan.