24 Feb How Anxiety Affects your Addiction
Anxiety is a tough hurdle in the midst of recovery. It is a consistent withdrawal symptom, and can often hinder one’s drive for recovery. Sometimes it can also be the reason for one’s addiction in the first place (medication abuse). Everyone is different, so each person handles addiction in their own way. However, it is not impossible to overcome. Like other symptoms of addiction, anxiety is often something that can be faced once it is handled with the right understanding. And that starts with understanding how exactly anxiety affects your addiction, and vice versa. Here are just a few things to consider when discussing your recovery plan with your doctors and therapists here at Florida Recovery Group’s Delray recovery center.
Anxiety and its causes
Anxiety is generally defined as a feeling of uneasiness or worry. An anxiety disorder is understood as a mental illness that causes so much unease that the person becomes hindered from experiencing a happy and well-functioning lifestyle. There are several causes for anxiety disorders, but most of the time it is related to the person’s brain chemistry. Generally the area of the brain that handles fear and strong emotions can be the source of the anxiety if those areas are not responding within a reasonable level of intensity.
Anxiety and Addiction
Anxiety is often a symptom of withdrawals from addiction. A person can become uneasy when they are physically and/or mentally worried over whether or not their body will be okay without the addictive substance. Anxiety can also be the reason for the addiction in the first place. People who take certain medications in order to reduce their anxiety may become addicted to the substance. This is unfortunate, but once again, not untreatable.
Things to keep in mind
With both anxiety and addiction bringing their own intense experiences, recovery for both requires professional guidance and therapy. And that is exactly what you will find at our Delray recovery center. We approach your treatment with calm, non-judgmental understanding and care. Treating both of these problems is called dual diagnosis, which takes into account how both of these problems uniquely affect one another. One must first have the proper understanding of how their brain specifically involves both anxiety and addiction. Then the patient will need the proper guidance in order to exercise their capacity to withstand the anxiety and the addiction.
If you are tired of putting up with these dual symptoms on your own, please don’t wait to contact us. Here at our Delray Recovery center, we believe that recovery is a journey worth finishing, but it does not have to be finished alone.
