Abuse survivors among many substance abuse cases, says charity

Many women battling substance addiction are also victims of intimate partner abuse, facing severe consequences that hinder their recovery and affect their ability to care for themselves and their children, according to experts at treatment centres Verdun and Marina House.

Allison Gotip, director of Clinical Services at Verdun and Marina House, told Barbados TODAY that often women find they are unable to overcome their addiction because their partners keep them isolated.

She said: “There is more than likely a lot of women who have gotten into using through some intimate relationship through a man, so then he may, you know, discourage her from going in, well I feed you, clothe you, you know, you’re getting drugs, whatever you’re doing, and, for lack of a better word, women have more to sell in terms of their bodies.”

She explained that in many cases, these women are almost invisible to the outside world.

“Sometimes those ladies who are in addiction will stay in one house, persons come to them so they can be intimate with them, they use, they get fed, there’s no need for them to be out publicly. So there’s no one to really know that they’re actually going through it, right, exactly, because they’re being fed, they’re being watered, they’re being looked after.”

The charity’s clinical director revealed that the cases of women are often more severe than those of men.

“One thing I can say is that those women who do have substance use disorders, it tends to be more severe than men, and there’s always, most time, a lot of trauma there as well. Men obviously go through trauma, but we realise that the way that women process trauma looks slightly different than men.”

This is largely because women are more likely to be victims of intimate partner abuse.

“Statistically, women tend to be more victims of intimate partner violence, you know, domestic violence, sometimes some of the physical things that they’ve gone through, the levels of abuse.”

Gotip revealed that this is one of the reasons Marina House was created: to separate the men from the women and create a safe environment for women to heal and recover.

“Imagine if we did have them combined and you have male and females together and we’re trying to process trauma, they may be looking at a male client and being triggered by just being in that environment, right, because of maybe things that they’ve gone through.”

But, she noted that even when women are ready to seek help, the reality of being a mother often becomes another barrier.

Women are often seen as the more responsible counterpart and relied on to take care of the home and family, leaving little room for healing, and pushing some further into substance use as a way to cope, said Gotip.

“There would have been some research, why is it that more men go into residential treatment, not even in Barbados, internationally, they have the same statistics showing it’s normally their role in society. Normally they are able sometimes to disconnect from society in terms of, you know, it seems to be a bit more acceptable as opposed to a mother saying, well, I’m gonna leave my children and come into treatment for 90 days.”

She added that childcare is one of the biggest hurdles.

“If you’ve got a 5-year-old and a 6-year-old, who’s taking them to school, nursery, etc.? And so that’s always a barrier because despite what females may have gone through, they still have a heart for their children, right? They still want to be present there even if they are high most of the time.”

She said their decisions to step away and seek treatment often cause them to be criticised by family members.

“We’ve had persons or family members who think, well, they’re just going on holiday … no, they need to work on themselves to make themselves well, so they turn up as a better version, as a mother to their children, so definitely the men come in more, and that’s why, you know, we’ve got here at Marina we’ve got the family therapy centre, we realise that it is hard for women to come into treatment and how can we best serve them, you know.”

louriannegraham@barbadostoday.bb