Stress and Addiction
People of all ages experience stress from time to time during their daily life. Stress can come in the form of many different things from minor incidents like forgetting to take out the garbage to more significant situations like a relative passing away. Sometimes it passes in a moment and sometimes it stays for days, weeks or months at a time.
The anxiety and negative thoughts associated with stress can affect many aspects of someone’s life. The toll stress has on mental and physical health can become unbearable and force the individual to search for something to numb their constant, overwhelming feelings. They may turn to substances like drugs and alcohol in order to forget the “real world” for even just a short amount of time.
When someone chooses to use substances to mask their problems instead of tackling them head on, they ultimately set themselves up to become addicted. In turn, they end up creating many more problems for themselves than they were facing before they decided to use.
Crest View Recovery Center is here to recommend treatments and therapies if you or someone you know has developed a substance addiction due to constant stress.
What is Chronic Stress?
Stress is a bodily reaction towards environmental and mental situations and causes discomfort and distress to a person’s physical, mental and emotional state. Some people need stress in their life in order to stay motivated to get things done. For others, stress may cause their emotions to spiral out of control.
There are 4 main types of stress: time, anticipatory, situational and encounter. Time and anticipatory stresses revolve around thoughts and feelings towards already occurring or future time-related situations like work deadlines or upcoming events. Situational and encounter stresses involve high anxiety towards places and people, such as running into an ex in public or being at a crowded concert.
Too much unwanted stress on the body can cause many changes to an individual’s health and wellbeing. They may start to develop anxiety or depression disorders because of the change in brain function. In extreme cases, some people may even turn to drugs or alcohol to numb the pain of their stress and become addicted to the substance.
Symptoms of Chronic Stress
At Crest View, our team is here to help you understand where the stress in your life is coming from and how to cope with it. There are many signs and symptoms of stress and some may include:
- Anxiety
- Fatigue
- Headaches
- Restlessness
- Pain in the chest
- Lack of motivation
- Symptoms of depression
- Isolation and social withdrawal
If experienced for an extended period of time, these symptoms begin to challenge a person both mentally and physically. The stress begins to wear on every aspect of their life, and it may seem like a never-ending cycle that will never let up.
When stress becomes too overwhelming, an individual may look for outlets that could help ease the severity. This is when an individual becomes a high risk for drug or alcohol abuse because they may start to dabble in trying whatever substances they can get their hands on. This in turn can cause over usage in order to “escape” from their worries and anxiety.
Treatment for Addiction and Co-Occurring Problems
Here at Crest View, we understand that stress is a difficult thing to overcome in certain cases. Maybe your job is too demanding or you are a single parent solely providing for your family while also raising your children. Life sometimes deals an unfair hand that is difficult to work through on a daily basis.
If you find yourself turning to substances like drugs or alcohol in order to relieve yourself of the pain stress can cause, we are here to help. We offer dual-diagnosis programs that not only cater to your substance abuse disorder but also any mental disorders you may have been diagnosed with, as well.
These treatments can include ones like reality therapy where our professionals will place you in a gender-specific home with individuals going through similar situations. They will teach you how to develop real-life skills like budgeting and relationship awareness while having the support of fellow recovering addicts around you. Fun social growth activities such as bowling and adventure courses will also be planned, so you will be able to work on social skills and team building.
Ways to Cope with Every Day Stress
There are many ways to cope with the stress that comes along in every day life. Even though it may seem like the weight of the world is on your shoulders, it’s important to remember that positivity and stress-relieving activities can help alleviate some of the pressure.
Some suggested stress-relieving activities could include:
Yoga: By practicing the art of yoga, you are able to explore your spirituality more freely and open up your mind to new ways of thinking. Yoga also increases blood flow to the brain as well as muscle strengthening that leads to the release of endorphins.
Boxing: Boxing is a great work out that allows you to get out unwanted aggression in a healthy way.
Nights Out and Vacations: Even if money is low, there are plenty budget-friendly hotels and restaurants that are available to look into. Get someone to watch the kids for the night or weekend and plan a getaway.
Religious-Based Activities: Despite your beliefs, releasing energy and thoughts to a power higher than yourself helps to lift some of life’s burdens.
How Crest View Recovery Center Can Help
In order to have a full recovery, it is important to have an educated, thoughtful team of people guiding you along the way. At Crest View Recovery Center, our dedicated professionals have helped countless patients with their stress and addiction disorders. We are committed to finding you the treatment plan that best fits your needs.
If you or someone you know has been dealing with co-occurring stress and addiction, our team will be able to give you the best resources to help. With the right information and treatment, these problems can be overcome. To learn how we can help, please call (866) 986-1371 to talk to one of our specialists at today.
