Drug Addiction To Cope With Anxiety
Whether you are facing big life changes or small stresses, excessive anxiety makes everything a big deal. Sometimes people turn to alcohol or drugs to self-medicate their physical and emotional discomfort. Everything just seems to pile on and be too much. Unfortunately this causes an even bigger problem.
Panic Disorder and Agoraphobia Examples
photo credit: Rennett Stowe
Panic disorder is a very discomforting disorder. The main symptoms feel much like a heart attack – heart palpitations, difficulty breathing, pains, tingling nerve endings, sweating, dizziness and unsteadiness. A panic attack causes many people to say they feel like they are dying.
A disorder that often goes with panic disorder is agoraphobia. This is the fear of open spaces, and a person with panic disorder can become fearful of having a panic attack in a public place. A person with agoraphobia gradually removes themselves from social interaction, often restricting themselves to the confines of their home. Can you imagine the stark loneliness, the gripping fear, the embarassment of knowing you’ve
let your life come down to this?
When you have tried what you think would work, when that’s failed to give you relief, when you’re afraid to take medicine or go see your therapist or even tell anyone your anxiety is choking the life out of you – what’s there left to do? That’s precisely when people start using drugs or alcohol to find relief. They can slip away into the fog of drunkenness or get carried away with the rush of a drug high. They aren’t trying to start a problem, they’re trying to survive with their problem.
Drug Treatment Best Option For Addiction and Anxiety
A person with serious anxiety and a drug addiction problem needs drug treatment. A small amount people have had success dealing with drug or alcohol addictions completely on their own, and that’s truly amazing. A dual diagnosis drug treatment center has staff with specialized training to help addicts with mental health disorders.
Having both a mental health and addiction problem is nothing to fool around with. They can get so entangled and serious, a great deal of damage could be done to a person’s life because they thought they were dealing with it just fine on their own. Mental patterns become engrained, physical damage starts to become less reversible, and the consequences can really pile up. So if you or someone you care about is self medicating for their anxiety, help them find a dual diagnosis drug treatment center. You could be saving someone’s life – is it yours?
Tags: Drug Addiction to Cope With Anxiety, drug treatment, drug-rehab
