Depression and Anxiety: The Role They Play in Substance Abuse
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, depression and anxiety play a key role in substance abuse. Most people who are addicted to substances experience depression or anxiety before, during, and after they use their drug of addiction. The majority of patients treated for substance abuse experience these feelings. When searching for treatment it is important to understand the role of depression and anxiety in all aspects of substance abuse.
Depression and Anxiety as a Cause of Substance Abuse
Depression and anxiety are a major cause of substance abuse. When someone has depressive disorder or any one of the anxiety disorders, they often self-medicate. Self-medicating is taking a substance for the relief of a condition when a doctor has not prescribed the substance. People self-medicate with a variety of different drugs and alcohol.
Those who suffer with depression and anxiety may use substances for temporary relief.
These substances provide temporary relief from the disorder. Since the relief is fleeting, they continue to use the substance to continue to treat the disorder. Soon the pathways in the brain start expecting the substance when they feel the symptoms of anxiety or depression. When someone continues to use the substance, they rapidly become addicted to it and dependent on it.
Depression and anxiety are a major cause of substance abuse. As two of the most wide spread mood disorders, they are responsible for many people using illegal substances in order to treat them.
Depression and Anxiety during Substance Use
Many substances cause depression and anxiety as a part of taking them. When your body adjusts to the substance, the substance stops producing the desired effect. This is called building a tolerance. Once you become tolerant to a substance, the substance stops working to treat the depression and anxiety and starts to cause it. This is why addiction becomes so dangerous. You start to use more and more of the substance, a condition that often leads to overdose.
On top of tolerance, many of these substances cause depression and anxiety as a side effect. You wind up with the very conditions you are using it to treat. Many addicts find that after a while the substance they are addicted to causes as many bad feelings as it does good.
Depression and Anxiety after Substance Abuse
Depression and anxiety are effects of withdrawal for the majority of the legal and illegal addictive substances on the market. When you stop using the substance, your body goes into withdrawal, this causes anxiety over where to get the substance and how to find a way to use it. The body craves it and without it depression returns. The only way to avoid this is to use a treatment center to help you get off the drug and end the addiction.
Finding Treatment for Depression, Anxiety, and Substance Abuse
You can find a treatment center for depression, anxiety, and substance abuse by calling 1-800-487-1890 (Who Answers?) . We can help to end the anxiety, depression and substance abuse without the discomfort of withdrawal and the endless cycle of renewing the addiction.