LifeChanges

If someone has been sexually and physically abused, by more than one person, does that increase your chance of having addictive behaviors?

ulfr

I have borderline Personality Disorder one of the diagnoses criteria for it is addictive behaviours its one of them that a psychologist looks into if there trying to help you am unsure if its more likely or not with thoese who have been abused and thoughts who have not anyone who has had trauma in there life try to find differant ways to deal with flashbacks and other parts of trauma
the best person to ask about this is a dr or psych i myself was abused from a young age the fact its happened to you you should seek help and i hope your not in that situation at the moment if you are please if its safe enough for you so get help please do so i wish i could help you more and am so sorry this has happened to you no one should go through that

Bunny211

Yes.
There's a lot of research about this.
Most of the female alcoholics/addicts I have encountered have suffered trauma, usually sexual (rape, abuse, incest, molestation).

ulfr

Forums - After Silence

here may help you i hope its ok to post this link

Anna

I think it does, and it's one of the many reasons that people turn to drugs and alcohol.

LifeChanges

Bunny 211, Yes, yes, yes and yes

DangerZone

Absolutely.. I like to compare it to how our veterans that have come back from wars and have done or seen horrific things are also much more likely to be an addict/alcoholic.

But I think it is very important to not use the traumatic experience(s) as excuse to keep drinking or using drugs. No matter how bad the situation or event that happened is it is possible fight through it and live a normal happy life with counseling, medication etc... Elizabeth Smart is a good example of this.

Alcohol/Drugs will cause a temporary escape but in the long term it will make everything much worse. It is a terrible idea to self-medicate this way.