Addiction offers grim statistics, such as tens of millions suffering from addiction or tens of thousands dying from opioid overdoses every year. What these numbers don’t reflect is that addiction stems from many sources, some genetic, some social, and some psychological. In fact, a mental health condition often drives a person’s addiction. Anxiety and addiction, for example, often go hand in hand.
What Is Anxiety?
Anxiety is essentially a fear response that creates a state of general distress. That distress fuels a stress response, which amps up adrenaline production and drives physical symptoms.
Anxiety works differently for everyone, which means it can show up with many different symptoms. A few of the more common symptoms include:
- Negative thinking
- Nausea
- Racing heart or palpitations
- A sense of impending doom
- Headaches and dizziness
Anxiety and Addiction Rehab
The relationship between anxiety and addiction is one of the more straightforward relationships in addiction. A person suffers from anxiety, so they have a drink to calm their nerves. It seems to work, so they drink more. The drinking increases until the person has an anxiety problem and an addiction.
Another path that is all too common is that you go to your doctor. The doctor gives you a prescription for occasional or emergency use. You start taking the prescription more and more often because you hate feeling anxious. Before you know it, you take the medication because you’re addicted to it.
One of the core problems with medicating or self-medicating anxiety is that it doesn’t treat the source of the anxiety. The medication only masks the problem. In some cases, it actually makes the anxiety worse over time.
Treatment
Treatment for anxiety and addiction takes a somewhat specialized approach called dual diagnosis treatment. Many rehab centers offer dual diagnosis treatment as part of the addiction therapy services, but not all of them do.
In dual diagnosis treatment, you follow two paths of therapy. On the addiction side of thing, you undergo a standard set of therapies related to addiction. A normal group of therapies can include:
- CBT and DBT
- Family Therapy
- EMDR
- Motivational Enhancement Therapy
On the anxiety side, you’ll receive therapies specifically for anxiety. Some of the therapy will aim at discovering and resolving the root of your anxiety. Other therapies will teach you coping and management techniques for your anxiety.
BoardPrep Recovery Center® Treats Anxiety and Addiction
BoardPrep Recovery Center® is a dual diagnosis treatment center in Tampa, FL. Moreover, BoardPrep seeks to offer the highest level of care without sacrificing personalization in treatment.
Don’t let anxiety and addiction become the final word on your life. With help from a dual diagnosis rehab program, you get your anxiety under control and start recovery from addiction. Contact BoardPrep at 866.796.4720 and see if our dual diagnosis program is right for you.
