Addiction as a coping mechanism for stress and anxiety
Stress and anxiety can affect your physical and mental health with addiction being triggered. How can this be managed?
In today’s modern world, stress is inescapable. While stress might motivate us to take on new challenges, high and consistent levels of stress can make us feel helpless, particularly for professionals at the executive level.
Those struggling with substance use disorder and rehabilitation are particularly vulnerable to the negative effects this might have on their physical and mental health.
Addiction risk increases when stress is present. Stress in early childhood, or any kind of chronic stress, raises this risk. Furthermore, this may present those suffering from addiction with an additional challenge: stress increases the likelihood that they may relapse.
This article takes a closer look at how addiction can become a dangerous coping mechanism for stress and anxiety.
The link between chronic stress and addiction
Anxiety attacks are a common reaction to prolonged stress. Addiction risk factors include both anxiety and stress that persist over time.
The neurotransmitter dopamine is responsible for the positive emotions your body experiences, while maintaining a steady state of happiness is caused by serotonin. Finally, the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin has a role in normalising sleep patterns.
Early and prolonged exposure to stress alters brain development, which in turn alters one’s capacity to respond to and cope with stress.
Dopamine signalling, serotonin synthesis, and melatonin secretion are all influenced by these shifts in the brain.
When stress is constant, it interferes with your body’s capacity to restore its normal state of health, equilibrium, and rest. Using substances as a coping mechanism causes further damage to these structures which are already disrupted by chronic stress.
Studies have shown that stress leads to increased substance abuse. Stress hormones can have their effects mitigated by alcohol, for example. While relying on substances to relieve stress may seem effective as a coping mechanism, chronic use can diminish the body’s natural ability to handle stress.
Therefore, removing yourself from a stress-triggering environment, and entering a luxury drug and alcohol rehab in South Africa, can provide a safe and clear path towards finding healthy coping mechanisms.
Stress, addiction, and the road to recovery
Reducing or eliminating sources of stress can be a helpful way to help you stick to your rehabilitation plan. Damage to the brain caused by substance abuse can magnify even minor sources of stress.
It’s not easy to cope with stress during recovery if you’re used to relying on alcohol or drugs to relieve tension. It can be more challenging if you are also experiencing withdrawal symptoms from substances.
The physical and mental strain of detox is a result of the withdrawal symptoms that occur when a person stops using drugs or alcohol. Detoxing can make even minor stresses seem insurmountable.
Drug-related stressors include the people, places, and daily items that you identify with using drugs or alcohol. Extreme and severe cravings might be triggered by constant visual reminders of the problem.
Undergoing professional treatment at a luxury drug and alcohol rehab in South Africa can help you to transcend the triggering factors of your daily environment, and find a way to cope with professional and personal stress in a healthy way going forward.
