Anxiety and Addiction

Anxiety is a pretty common response to something frightening, unknown, or somewhat dangerous. Humans are built to have some anxiety to help keep their impulses under control, think twice before you make a move sometimes. But what if even ordinary activities and interactions made you feel this way much of the time? What if you turned to drugs and alcohol to calm your nerves? Unmanaged anxiety and addiction can go hand in hand to cause a lot of problems.

Anxiety Disorders And Symptoms

Anxiety disorders can range from mild social or performance anxiety to panic disorders and agoraphobia. As stated earlier, a little anxiety is pretty normal. You do need to worry a little about what would happen if you paid your bills late, or if you didn’t get to work on time, or if you remembered to turn off the oven before you left town. The usefulness of anxiety only goes so far. When most things trigger the fight-or-flight response, it becomes difficult to tell what is really threatening and what is a false alarm.

Anxiety symptoms can include many sensations including heart palpitations, sweating, clammy hands, a hot flushing feeling, tingling, shakiness, faintness, upset stomach, and diarrhea. There are also lots of negative thoughts, “what if’s”, self-doubt, feelings of uncertainy and fear. Some people who have panic attacks can feel so bad they believe they might be dying, having a heart attack, or losing control of their mind.

How Would an Addict With Anxiety Look to Others?

A person with anxiety may isolate themselves, or limit their activities that cause their anxiety to get worse. They may have the idea that if they don’t “push” themselves, they can prevent the anxiety from coming on. They might make their personal world smaller and smaller, avoiding anything that might seem to difficult to cope with. They might very well still feel anxiety, regardless of their self-limiting actions.

They most likely do a lot of their drinking or drugging alone. If they do need to be out in public and feel anxiety from this, they are likely to use just prior to or while being with others in the situations that make them uncomfortable. And some drugs may actually make their anxiety worse, such as marijuana and stimulant use and coming off alcohol or another depressant. The person is compelled to use more drugs to get rid of the uncomfortable anxiety sensations.

Treatment For Anxiety and Addiction

Generally, a person can learn to manage their anxiety with cognitive behavioral therapy. Often, anti-anxiety medication is used to help calm the mind and make physical symptoms better. When a person with anxiety also has an addiction, it is important to get treatment for both together. The reason for the drug use is tightly linked with the anxiety. Getting a person sober without addressing their underlying anxiety problem will make sobriety difficult to maintain.

The Canyon offers a full program for anyone suffering from anxiety and addiction together. The beautiful surroundings, expert dual diagnosis staff, research-based addiction treatment, and the unique therapies help the whole person through the start of their recovery process.

Addiction is a process that retools your brain, emotions, and body to accept a foreign substance as your boss. You risk life and limb for it, it changes your emotions, it distorts how you think. So once you stop using drugs and alcohol, why doesn’t everything just go back to normal? The changes made by the drugs stick around for a lot of different reasons.

Genetic Vulnerability to Addictive Behavior

What really causes one person to become addicted to drugs when another person won’t? Researchers don’t know exactly how this happens, but they have uncovered one important factor. A person can have a genetic predisposition to addictive behavior. That means they have the right personality and physical “recipe” to grab on to an addiction in whatever form it might take – gambling, drugs, shopping, etc.

So say a person with genetic vulnerability to addictive behaviors is exposed to a lot of stress or rapid adjustment. They are also presented with an opportunity to escape from this stress (drugs, alcohol, etc). When these two forces come together, they can create the perfect storm of emotional pain and emotional cover-up. This is when the addiction is born.

Mental Disorders and Emotional Pain Go With Addiction

Many times, psychological factors like depression and low self worth go along with addiction. You have the stress, the poor outlook on life, and a bottomless mixed drink or endless round of marijuana joints. It’s the recipe for a full-blown addiction to form.

An untreated mental disorder can be like gasoline on a fire. It makes an already bad situation worse in a moment’s notice. A mental disorder does many things to distort reality and magnify various emotions for a person. This provides perpetual fuel for the addiction. Some rough days at work through the lens of depression seems hopeless – drown it in alcohol. Too much to do at home and constant fear that their effort isn’t good enough – escape with marijuana.

Family Patterns and Surroundings

Another ingredient in an addiction is a person’s environment and experiences, especially from their childhood. Let’s imagine that Sara grows up with parents who do a lot of shouting and fighting mixed with cold silence. Mom spends the whole paycheck before the next one comes, dad goes out with the guys all night long, both of them have affairs.

Sara copes with this chaos by burying her head in the sand however she can as a child – fantasizing, making herself too busy, being a little parent to her brother. Meanwhile, no one is really teaching Sara how to deal with her own stress and feelings. Her parents do a lot of avoiding, showing intense emotion, and getting stuck in their own world.

As an adult, Sara faces ordinary and usual stresses of being on her own but has no idea how to cope in healthy ways. She makes herself overly busy, has friends but feels lonely, and marries a charming guy who ends up being abusive. The pain from this “life of extremes” is so overwhelming, she eventually escapes through drugs and alcohol.

Drug Rehab Helps A Person Focus Their Life With Balance

Holistic drug rehab is the most comprehensive way to deal with dual diagnosis situations. The Canyon is a known leader in the field of residential drug treatment for co-occurring disorders. The genetics, the mental disorders, the family factors – The Canyon is equipped to deal with all of them. They teach a person with dual diagnosis how to balance their life, something they may be learning for the very first time.

Dual Diagnosis is like a time bomb. If it’s ignored, you just never know it’s going to make someone’s life explode into shattered pieces – over and over again. Unfortunately, dual diagnosis does just that to millions of people. Mental illness and addiction tangle themselves into a person’s judgment, emotional coping skills, decision making processes, and relationships.

How Dual Diagnosis Turns Into Legal Trouble

As if people with a dual diagnosis don’t have enough problems already, they sometimes become involved with legal trouble. Think about it – if your judgment was impaired most days by either a bipolar manic episode and alcohol or drugs, would you think twice about punching someone or driving too fast?

A person whose mind is swimming in drugs and poor judgment is likely to make the same mistakes many times. They aren’t in drug treatmentand aren’t capable of making changes to avoid more trouble. Instead of making plans to avoid the same bad decisions, they act on their emotional impulses. Pretty soon, they are faced with repeated DUI’s or the third charge of first degree assault in a few months time. A revolving door of problems and trouble.

Prison Population and Dual Diagnosis

Not everyone in jail or prison has a dual diagnosis. But having a dual diagnosis increases your odds of having a night in the clinker or spending some time up in “the big house.” A report from NAMI states that about 16% of those in jail or prison have a substance abuse disorder.

Obviously, having a dual diagnosis isn’t the only reason people end up in jail. But it’s easy to see that this section of the prison and jail population has a great risk of offending and re-offending if they are not given proper dual diagnosis treatment. Their untreated mental illnesses and addictions will perpetuate their problems.

Dual Diagnosis Treatment in Jail and Prison

It seems that true dual diagnosis treatment is difficult to come by in the jail and prison system. Drug treatment and mental illness services are sometimes available depending on how long a person is incarcerated. But let’s face it – jail and prison are jail and prison. It’s just not the same as going to a carefully chosen drug rehab center.

And all drug rehab facilities are certainly not made from the same mold. The Canyon has an established reputation for being experts in the field of dual diagnosis. No other place has the solid background of research and holistic drug treatment approach.

Dual diagnosis problems can be particularly tough to crack – their issues are intertwined like thick weeds with deep roots. If a person can be quickly rerouted to a true dual diagnosis drug treatment center like The Canyon, they stand a much better chance at turning a real corner in their life.

Avid pot smokers don’t want to hear it, but more and more studies are coming out lately that say that marijuana abuse affects more than just your motivation; it affects your brain and, specifically, parts of your brain that control your psychological behavior. Summed up, it’s not just one study but many that are pinpointing marijuana abuse as part of the problem in cases of psychosis, schizophrenia and brain abnormalities.

What the Experts Say About Marijuana Abuse and Mental Illness

* One study put out by Cygnet Health Care, a British provider of psychiatric care for patients with psychological, emotional and addiction problems, and published in the British Journalo of Psychiatry and Medical News Today states that, “Teenage cannabis users are more likely to suffer psychotic symptoms that raise the risk of full-blown mental illness in later life.” The significance of this study is that psychosis was linked to the very earliest stages of marijuana usage. This means that no experimentation with the drug is harmless.
* Another study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, and Medical News Today found that long-term use of marijuana can lead to structural abnormalities in the hippocampus and amygdala. These areas are smaller in marijuana smokers, areas that regulate things like emotions, memory, fear and aggression. This translated into more symptoms of psychosis among marijuana users than those who did not use the drug.

Are You Experiencing Symptoms of Psychosis Due to Marijuana Abuse?

There are a number of different things that you may experience when you are addicted to or abuse marijuana, but the following symptoms of psychosis occur even when the “high” has worn off. Look for feelings of:

* Suspicion of being followed or that someone is trying to influence you
* Strange things are happening around you or to you
* Uncontrollable thoughts or speedy thoughts

Dr Zerrin Atakan is a consultant for Cygnet Health Care and has researched and written on the effects of marijuana. He says there is hope: “The provision of appropriate knowledge delivery on the subject and early intervention are both important to prevent the development of a psychotic illness.”

What Do You Think?

There are a number of studies that link long-term marijuana abuse to health problems and yet people are still pushing for legalization. These studies show that short-term use, too, can have an effect on people and further prove that among the long-term health consequences are psychological problems.

But what do you think? Marijuana: health risk or restorative drug?

Mental health is the foundation for all life skills, including communication with others. For people with dual diagnoses, these skills may be underdeveloped at best, frozen at the developmental stage when their mental illness or addiction began. Mental illness and addiction makes a person focus primarily on themselves, which makes good communication difficult. In dual diagnosis drug rehab, people learn how to reach out to others again and build useful communication habits.

A person with good mental health has the basis for good communication. People use all their senses to communicate back and forth with others. To be effective, the message sender and the message receiver need to aware, responsive, and adaptive. There are many things that can change a person’s message from the time it forms in their brain to the time it gets out so another person can see or hear it. Also, there are many things that can interfere with a message being interpreting in the way the sender intended. Even on a good day, clear communication can be tricky!

So now throw in some depression and methamphetamine, or maybe bipolar and alcohol. The whole proposition gets even stickier. Now, you have a person, or persons, who have serious distortions with both message delivery and message reception. The mind of someone affected by mental illness and addiction is scrambled, desperately confused and warped. The drugs distort sensations and a person’s state of mind. The mental illness creates a “fun house mirror” effect with a person’s thoughts and feelings – everything is out of proportion, and often extreme in nature.

Basic skills and abilities come together to make communication possible. Unfortunately, these skills are sabotaged when drugs and mental illness run amok. These skills include basic listening and short term memory, empathy, patience, being able to use words clearly, staying emotionally calm. For most people with dual diagnosis, communication problems hinder their ability to form and keep good relationships, it keeps them from getting the mental illness and drug treatment they need.

At the Canyon, dual diagnosis drug rehab uses drug detox and alcohol detox, counseling, traditional addiction 12-step methods, and ancient therapies. The holistic drug treatment approach attends to the whole person, allowing healing to occur in many ways. When a person regains balance in their life, they have the opportunity to re-tune their communication skills. Individual and group counseling are safe environments for practicing these skills and making good habits.

After completing drug rehab, a person needs to stay aware of their new habits and their old unhealthy habits. Addiction and mental illness are multi-faceted problems. It can take a person many months or even years to establish a healthy lifestyle. Drug rehab isn’t a miracle cure, but it is a place to start a new direction in life.

A few weeks ago we talked about 5 Signs of Addiction to CNS Stimulants like crystal methamphetamine, and since then I’ve fielded a few questions on the insidious nature of this drug. A common problem among those whose drug of choice is crystal is that they are often fooled into thinking that they can quit alone because the withdrawal symptoms are more emotional than physical like opiate withdrawal. Unfortunately, it’s just not true. The relapse rate for those addicted to crystal is about three months long. You may be able to hold off, not use, “white knuckle it” as they say in recovery, but the mental addiction to the drug is difficult to overcome on your own.

Here’s why.

Crystal Meth and Dopamine Production

It’s all about dopamine, the happy chemical in your brain. You know how you crash into an overwhelming depression for days and days after a run on crystal meth? It seems like the crash parallels the run in intensity and duration and, for some, it’s the kind of depression that is suicidal and desperate. That’s because the intense amoung of dopamine that is stimulated by crystal meth through smoking or injecting the drug is what makes you feel so good while you’re high. Take it away, and your brain crashes. No more dopamine stimulation, no more dopamine, hence the depression.

Crystal Meth Plays Tricks on Your Mind

After about three months, according to studies, the dreaded crash has faded from memory and for some reason, crystal meth addicts begin to romanticize the high associated with the drug. Some are convinced that they can’t be really happy without it, that they won’t be able to handle basic tasks much less big projects. It’s a drug that seems to mess with your head even more than your body when you stop taking it.

Treating Crystal Meth Addiction

A crystal meth detox can be an overwhelming experience, one that you may require help with. If you feel suicidal, contact a medical professional immediately. If you need help breaking the mental hold of crystal meth, contact a drug addiction facility like The Canyon. The Canyon provides a relaxing and vacation like spot for you to get away from temptation and get the help you need. A dual diagnosis treatment facility, The Canyon specializes in treating those who are struggling with mental issues as well as addiction to drugs. We can answer any questions you have, whether it’s your drug use that has you concerned or that of someone you love. Contact us today for more information.

For more about the work being done to find new treatments for crystal methamphetamine addiction and other studies, check out the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) and Medical News Today.

So what does it take to make a healthy relationship – trust, communication, spending time together? Yes, all of those things and more. Being able to put someone else’s needs ahead of your own is perhaps the most basic building block for a healthy relationship. But if your world is turned upside down with addiction and mental disorders, you may not know how to do anything but look after yourself. Relationships and untreated dual diagnosis problems just don’t mix well.

What You Need for Healthy Adult Relationships

First, take a look at some of the skills a person needs to create and keep a healthy adult romantic relationships. Many of these principles apply to casual daters as well as people dating for marriage and married or life-long couples.

• Having empathy means that you can take the other person’s viewpoint and understand where they are coming from.
• Being selfish is easy; putting the other person first makes them feel important to you.
• Being vulnerable means that you share some things about yourself that aren’t so perfect.
  One of the most valuable things you can give to another person is your time.
• When a couple solves problems together, they are putting aside their selfishness to gain something greater for both of them.
• The more effort and patience you put forth in choosing your partner wisely, the better your relationship experience will be.
• When you do decide to date seriously and eventually marry, the strongest relationships bring two healthy people together to create something bigger than just themselves.

How Addiction and Mental Disorders Create Relationship Problems

So do you have a good picture in your mind of how a healthy relationship comes together? Giving, sharing, making time, being a decent person to your partner? Now throw in everything about addiction and mental disorders that makes a person’s daily life miserable. Hours or days of being drunk or high, stuck in a foggy daze. Excuses for where money has gone, why you are hardly ever home, why you cancel dates or commitments. Confusion, unbearable despair, fears and obsessions, a constant bad mood – does any of this sound conducive to a great relationship? No, not hardly.

In fact, probably the biggest problem is how people with co-occurring disorders chose their partners to begin with. (This also holds true for people with just mental illness or addiction alone.) As a general rule, people tend to pick romantic partners that are about as mentally healthy and confident as they are.

For example, a self-confident woman who is content with herself and has a solid character is not likely to get deeply involved with a drug addict or someone with bipolar disorder. She would quickly recognize signs of a person with little life direction, poor self concept, evidence of a heavy drinking or drug lifestyle. Not something she’s likely to keep doing for very long. She wants someone she can count on, not someone she has to chase after or babysit when life gets tough.

By the same token, an anxious woman with alcoholism won’t stay with a strong steady guy who has ambition and good impulse control. She won’t be able to deal with her feelings of inadequacy very well, won’t relate to his consistency and self-control. She’d be much more comfortable with someone who’s got a similar level of life problems, maybe even someone with worse problems than herself to improve her feeling of personal power.

Drug Treatment Helps Relationship Problems

Drug treatment can help relationship troubles When a person’s life is completely out of control from untreated addiction and mental disorders, dual diagnosis rehab is the way to turn everything around. You learn how to live without the deception and turmoil of addiction, you learn how to use your mind and handle your emotions more effectively. Essentially, you learn all the things it takes to become a healthy part of a great relationship.