Everyone gets anxious from time to time. An important work meeting, family strife, a long list of to-do’s—there are many situations and circumstances we commonly encounter in life that can lead to anxious thoughts and feelings. But for some, anxiety can be a daily companion, regardless of circumstances. When this happens, substance abuse can often follow, leading to an ever-present struggle of addiction and anxiety. If that’s you or someone you love, it’s important to know that with the right dual diagnosis treatment, this unending cycle of anxiety and substance abuse can finally be broken.
Anxiety vs. Anxiety Disorders
Before we get into the effectiveness of dual diagnosis treatment, we need to discuss both anxiety and substance abuse, as well as how they’re so often connected. In regard to anxiety, it’s described as an emotion characterized by feelings of worry, tension, and physical changes like elevated blood pressure, all typically associated with a clear future threat or circumstance. Feelings of anxiousness and worry are a normal experience. There may even be something in the back of your mind that’s causing you anxiety as you’re reading this. Just because you’re anxious doesn’t mean you have what’s called an anxiety disorder, however.
Separate from typical anxiety, an anxiety disorder causes frequent, excessive, and persistent worry, terror, and fear about everyday situations. Anxiety disorder episodes are usually repetitive, sudden, and intense. Often, the anxiety you’re feeling is out of proportion to the actual circumstances you’re facing. In other words, reality is not as dangerous as your anxieties perceive. As a result, your anxiousness can get difficult to control and may hinder your ability to live a normal life. Common anxiety disorders include:
- Generalized anxiety disorder: The most common anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety disorder causes persistent and excessive worry about everyday issues like job, family, and personal responsibilities.
- Social phobia: Also called social anxiety disorder, social phobia causes feelings of embarrassment and self-consciousness around being viewed poorly by others. This leads to high anxiety and fear, as well as avoidance of social situations.
- Panic disorder: Associated with shortness of breath, chest pain, or feelings of impending doom, panic disorder causes repeated episodes of sudden anxiety or fear called panic attacks.
Anxiety Triggers and Symptoms
As you’re reading about the different anxiety disorders above, you may be able to relate. So what signs can you look out for in your own life that may indicate you have an anxiety disorder? The main symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder include:
- Headaches
- Tense muscles
- Trouble falling or staying asleep
- Breathing troubles
- Irritability
- Lightheadedness
- Nausea and upset stomach
- Difficulty concentrating or focusing
- Difficulty making decisions
If you think you may have an anxiety disorder, there are a number of anxiety triggers you may encounter that can make your symptoms arise (or get worse). Some common anxiety triggers include:
- Difficult health issues such as chronic illness
- Medications
- Caffeine
- Skipping meals
- Negative thoughts
- Financial difficulties
- Social gatherings
- Stress
- People, places, or circumstances associated with traumatic events
Understanding Substance Abuse and Addiction
When you use a substance, you more than likely don’t have plans to become addicted to it. However, what many people start using to relax, connect socially, or to feel good can often spiral into an addiction, also known as substance abuse or a substance use disorder. Common substances associated with addiction range from both the legal to the illicit, including:
- Alcohol
- Tobacco products, including cigarettes and chewing tobacco
- Certain prescription medications, such as opioids
- Marijuana
- Meth
- Cocaine
- Heroin
When you’re abusing a substance, it means you continue to use it despite the problems it causes, such as distress, impairment, or risky behavior. Essentially, your brain has become chemically dependent on your chosen substance to function, so you can’t stop. An addiction can produce a number of psychological and behavioral symptoms, including:
- Strong cravings or urges to use the substance
- Spending excessive time obtaining and using the substance
- Being unsuccessful and managing your substance use
- An increased tolerance for the substance
- Experiencing withdrawal symptoms when trying to stop using
- Neglecting personal and work responsibilities in favor of your substance use
- Saying no to hobbies and activities to use your substance
A Dual Diagnosis: How Anxiety and Substance Abuse are Connected
Because anxiety disorders and substance abuse are often intertwined, a dual diagnosis of both conditions is common. For example, 20% to 40% of people treated for anxiety disorder will also have an alcohol addiction, shares the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. But what’s the reasoning behind the connection between anxiety and substance abuse?
Many with an anxiety disorder will self-medicate for their symptoms, usually via alcohol or drugs. When you’re regularly experiencing constant worry and fear, it’s only natural to look for ways to find relief. But instead of seeking a doctor’s help, reaching for the bottle is often more convenient. These mood-altering substances become the preferred way to cope with continued anxiety over and over again. Before long, you’re taking your chosen substance despite its negative consequences. You simply can’t quit. And there’s also a good chance that you’ll become addicted to your substance faster than someone without an anxiety disorder.
Alternatively, prolonged drug or alcohol use can lead to mental health disorders like depression or anxiety disorder. Certain substances over time can impact your brain’s chemistry so much that it becomes harder for you to self-regulate your emotions when negative experiences arise. As a result, you can develop anxiety disorder in addition to your substance abuse disorder. At this point, you’re struggling with an even greater challenge—co-occurring disorders.
The Challenge of Co-Occurring Disorders
If you’re dealing with co-occurring disorders, it means you have both an addiction and a mental health disorder at the same time. Each disorder feeds off the other, leading to this difficult, ongoing cycle mentioned earlier. In the case of anxiety and substance abuse, their presence combined makes each individual condition worse. No matter if you first started with anxiety or a substance use disorder, adding a co-occurring disorder into the mix doesn’t improve your original condition.
When you’re first struggling with anxiety, using a substance like alcohol or drugs may temporarily numb your anxious thoughts and feelings. However, the effects wear off, so you have to use again. As time goes on, your brain and body develop a tolerance to the substance, so you have to use more of it (and use it more often) to achieve the same effects. This not only leads to addiction, but your brain can become conditioned to the presence of your substance to achieve a calmer state. And unfortunately, your anxiety symptoms will often come back worse once the substance wears off—so you continue to use more to cope—and the cycle continues.
On the other hand, certain substances like alcohol can actually generate anxiety after increased usage. In other words, you may have first used alcohol for its relaxing effects. But the more you use it, it eventually produces just the opposite outcome: more anxiety. Once you’re addicted and try to quit, you can experience withdrawal symptoms that include anxiety—only adding to your already high levels of worry and fear thanks to your anxiety disorder. At this point, you need a specialized plan of care for your co-occurring disorders called dual diagnosis treatment if you truly want to achieve long-term recovery.
Finding Healing with Dual Diagnosis Treatment
Exactly what is dual diagnosis treatment? When you’re faced with co-occurring disorders, dual diagnosis treatment can be your lifeline, because it means both your disorders can be addressed together. When an addiction treatment center offers dual diagnosis rehab, the benefits for you are twofold. First of all, co-occurring disorders can often be difficult to diagnose—which only causes problems in your treatment if your secondary disorder isn’t identified. A treatment center that can properly identify a dual diagnosis can put you on the right track with your recovery (and avoid the setbacks of misdiagnosis), all in one place.
Second, dual diagnosis treatment can actually break the vicious cycle of co-occurring disorders like anxiety and substance abuse. Because anxiety and substance abuse are so interconnected, they need to be treated simultaneously if you’re going to heal from both disorders. You simply can’t address them one at a time, otherwise the untreated condition will negatively affect any progress you’ve made on the treated one. Instead, working with an expert team capable of providing the necessary dual diagnosis treatment for both conditions at the same time puts you on the best path toward long-term healing.
Ready to Partner with One of the Best Dual Diagnosis Treatment Centers?
While obtaining dual diagnosis treatment is critical to healing your co-occurring disorders, finding the right dual diagnosis treatment facility is just as important. At Defining Wellness Centers in Mississippi, we take a comprehensive approach to treating addiction and anxiety disorders together. Tailoring our programs to your individual needs, our dual diagnosis plan of care often includes:
- Evidence-based and experiential therapies
- Cutting-edge biotechnology
- Group therapy and community support
Addressing your psychological, mental, spiritual, and physical needs together, we can help you overcome your co-occurring disorders and restore your life. To learn more, contact us today.
