SCT has contributed to specialist charity, One in Four’s report on childhood sexual abuse and addiction, launched 27th March.

The charity’s new report, Numbing the Pain: Survivors’ voices of childhood sexual abuse and addiction, calls for greater awareness about the underlying trauma of childhood sexual abuse in people facing addiction.

The report includes personal accounts from some of SCT’s students and residents on the impact of childhood sexual abuse.

These 14 individual stories chronicle how substance use helped survivors feel euphoria and fill the void of emptiness.

Many of the survivors explained how substance misuse enabled them to keep negative thoughts at bay and bury the trauma of childhood sexual abuse and the feelings of shame and self-hate associated with it.

SCT also participated in a film created by One in Four which aims to aid services dealing with addiction to promote awareness of the link between addiction and childhood trauma, and encourage addiction services to provide support for survivors more holistically.

Clarinda Cuppage, One in Four Project Coordinator: “From the very beginning of this project SCT opened their door to us, working with us to collect the personal stories of addiction and childhood abuse. We are so grateful for their help in creating this necessary resource on how to better support survivors and people in recovery from addiction.”

“Many of the people we work with are survivors of childhood sexual abuse and have been self-medicating with drugs and alcohol to cope with the trauma of abuse.” – Steve Marshall, Primary Programme Manager at SCT.

Steve Marshall, Primary Programme Manager at SCT, said: “Many of the people we work with are survivors of childhood sexual abuse and have been self-medicating with drugs and alcohol to cope with the trauma of abuse. We have worked closely with One in Four to put this vital resource together and raise awareness on the links between addiction and abuse. And we have applied many of the learnings from the report to our whole person approach, treating the needs of people holistically to ensure long-term recovery and a more fulfilling life.”

You can download the report from One in Four here.