The textbook definition of trauma is that it is an emotional response to a terrible event. And I’ll also share some practical ways to make meditation and mindfulness easier and less emotionally triggering. In this article, I want to talk about the relationship between trauma and mindfulness. So when we discuss mindfulness and meditation as an approach to changing our drinking, we should tread carefully. But we need to acknowledge that this relationship between trauma and problematic drinking will be true for some of us. Or that those of us who struggle with alcohol were necessarily traumatised at an earlier point in our lives. Of course, that’s not to say that everyone who experiences trauma in childhood will drink problematically as an adult. Many researchers and psychologists have observed that there is a relationship between childhood trauma and later alcohol dependence. And trauma may well emerge as an issue when we are changing our drinking. You mention emotional flashbacks, so it is worth saying this: difficulties with meditation can be especially present when we are living with a legacy of trauma.

When we discuss mindfulness and meditation as an approach to changing our drinking, we should tread carefully

So thank you for raising this important issue. But you’re right to highlight something that gets overlooked: meditation and mindfulness practices can cause problems. I’ve been writing about the benefits of mindfulness all this month in Club Soda, exploring what it means to be mindful about drinking, how mindfulness can help us with triggers for drinking, and how mindfulness meditation can help us change.

Trauma sensitive mindfulness book