When we hear the word “trauma,” we might think of a soldier coming back from war or someone who survived a terrible car crash. These are real examples of trauma, but they’re only part of the picture. There’s another type of trauma that’s harder to see but just as powerful – and it affects many people struggling with addiction.

Today, we’re going to explore the difference between two types of trauma: single-event trauma and complex trauma. Understanding this difference is like having a key that unlocks why some people have such a hard time with addiction recovery.

What Is Single-Event Trauma?

Single-event trauma is exactly what it sounds like – trauma that happens once and then it’s over. Think of it like a sudden storm that hits without warning, causes damage, and then moves on.

Some examples of single-event trauma include:

• A car accident
• A natural disaster like a hurricane or earthquake
• Being attacked or robbed
• Witnessing something terrible happen to someone else
• A medical emergency
• The sudden death of a loved one

These experiences are scary and can definitely affect a person for a long time. Someone might develop anxiety about driving after a car crash, or they might have nightmares about an earthquake. But here’s the key thing about single-event trauma: it has a clear beginning and end. The person can usually point to when it happened and say, “That’s when my life changed.”

People with single-event trauma often respond well to traditional therapy. They can work through the specific event, process their feelings about it, and learn healthy ways to cope with the memories and emotions.

What Is Complex Trauma?

Complex trauma is very different. Instead of being like a single storm, it’s like living in a place where storms happen over and over again, sometimes for years. The person never gets a chance to fully recover from one difficult experience before another one happens.

Complex trauma usually involves:

• Repeated harmful experiences – not just one bad thing, but many
• Happening over time – weeks, months, or years
• Often in relationships – especially with people who were supposed to care for and protect the person
• Usually starting in childhood – when the brain and body are still developing

Some examples of complex trauma include:

• Growing up with abuse that happened again and again
• Living with severe neglect over many years
• Being in a home where there was constant violence or chaos
• Having caregivers who were addicted to drugs or alcohol and couldn’t provide safety
• Being in multiple foster homes without stability
• Living with a parent who had serious mental illness and couldn’t care for the child properly

The word “complex” doesn’t mean it’s complicated to understand. It means the trauma was made up of many different pieces that built up over time.

Why the Difference Matters

You might wonder why it matters whether trauma happened once or many times. The answer lies in how our brains and bodies respond to these different experiences.

When something scary happens once, our brain can usually make sense of it. We might think, “That was terrible, but it’s over now, and I’m safe.” We can put the experience in a mental box labeled “bad thing that happened” and move forward.

But when scary things happen over and over, especially to children, the brain starts to believe that the world is always dangerous. It’s like the brain’s alarm system gets stuck in the “on” position. The person starts to expect bad things to happen all the time.

This creates what we call “survival mode.” In survival mode, the person’s brain is always watching for danger, even when they’re actually safe. This makes it very hard to relax, trust other people, or feel good about themselves.

How Complex Trauma Affects the Whole Person

Complex trauma doesn’t just affect one part of a person – it affects everything about how they experience life.

Emotions: People with complex trauma often struggle with their feelings. They might feel numb sometimes and overwhelmed other times. Emotions might feel too big to handle, or they might not feel anything at all. Anger, sadness, and fear can seem to come from nowhere.

Relationships: Trust becomes very difficult when the people who were supposed to love and protect you were the ones who hurt you. Someone with complex trauma might push people away when they get close, or they might cling too tightly to relationships. They might not know what healthy love looks like.

Self-Image: When bad things happen to children repeatedly, they often blame themselves. They might think, “If I were a better kid, this wouldn’t happen to me.” This creates a deep belief that they’re not worth love or care.

Physical Health: Our bodies remember trauma, even when our minds try to forget. People with complex trauma often have physical problems like chronic pain, stomach issues, headaches, or trouble sleeping. Their nervous system stays on high alert all the time.

The Connection to Addiction

Here’s where this connects to addiction: substances can feel like a solution to the pain of complex trauma. Drugs and alcohol can temporarily quiet the emotional pain, help someone sleep, or make them feel less anxious. They provide relief from the constant stress of being in survival mode.

But this relief doesn’t last, and it comes with its own problems. The person needs more and more of the substance to get the same relief. Eventually, the addiction creates new trauma and problems.

This is why traditional addiction treatment doesn’t always work for people with complex trauma. If we only focus on stopping the substance use without addressing the underlying trauma, it’s like putting a bandage on a deep wound. The surface might look better, but the real injury is still there.

The Numbers Tell the Story

Research shows us just how common complex trauma is among people with addiction:

• Up to 90% of people seeking addiction treatment have experienced some form of trauma
• About 75% of women and 60% of men in addiction treatment have complex trauma histories
• People with complex trauma are more likely to have severe addictions and more difficulty staying sober

These numbers help us understand why some people struggle more with recovery than others. It’s not that they’re not trying hard enough or don’t want to get better. It’s that they’re dealing with deeper wounds that need specialized care.

Hope for Healing

The good news is that complex trauma can be healed. Our brains have an amazing ability to change and grow throughout our lives. With the right help and support, people can learn to feel safe in their bodies again, build healthy relationships, and find lasting recovery from addiction.

In our next article, we’ll explore how unhealed trauma shows up in daily life and what signs to look for. Understanding these signs is another important step on the journey to healing.

Remember: if you recognize yourself in this description of complex trauma, you’re not broken. You’re a survivor who learned to cope with impossible situations. Now it’s time to learn new ways of coping that will help you thrive, not just survive.

Next week: Part 2 – Recognizing the Signs: How Unhealed Trauma Shows Up