Anxiety is one of the leading causes of addiction. Feeling anxious is a completely normal human reaction, but some people have a heightened response to fear. This happens when specific parts of the brain are too active. Fortunately, an anxiety treatment program is one of the best ways to manage your symptoms while continuing to stay clean.
Why an Anxiety Treatment Program?
Anxiety is a natural response to danger. Overall, it’s a survival instinct. The source of anxiety comes from the amygdala, which is responsible for our fight or flight response. Our ancestors needed this area of the brain when responding to danger. Some scientists believe people with high levels of anxiety were more likely to survive in the past.
Anxiety causes the following symptoms:
Adrenaline
Increased heart rate
Excessive sweating
Racing thoughts
For most people, the amygdala deactivates once the danger is gone. However, for people with anxiety, this doesn’t happen. The amygdala remains active, which disrupts many people’s ability to lead happy, functional lives. In order to calm their minds, they might resort to drug or alcohol use. The problem is that substance abuse eventually makes the symptoms of anxiety even worse.
What Does Anxiety Treatment Do?
Dual diagnosis treatment is a major part of the addiction recovery process. Overall, it’s difficult to stay sober when you’re experiencing terrifying thoughts and feelings all day. However, when you go through an addiction treatment program that offers dual diagnosis therapy you’re more likely to stay sober. This therapy addresses your mental health as well as your substance addiction. Medical staff will treat each problem separately so you can manage your symptoms with an anxiety treatment program without using substances.
Through addiction treatment, you’ll begin to realize that your mind is absolutely manageable and that you have far less to be anxious about.
Addiction and Anxiety Treatment at Steps to Recovery
One of the reasons anxiety is worse during active addiction is because you begin to cause more problems in your life that make you fearful. When you already have anxiety, it only gets worse when you constantly obsess over obtaining more drugs. In addition, anxiety gets worse when you know you’re hurting your loved ones. Overall, learning to manage your addiction is one of the best ways to decrease your anxiety.
Steps to Recovery wants to help you learn how to overcome your addiction and manage your anxiety. We offer various therapeutic methods to teach you how to work through your anxiety and live a much happier, healthier life. The additional treatment programs we offer here include:
“From the moment you walk through the door you are made to feel like family. You are no longer alone. The clinicians have a way of making you comfortable enough to talk about anything.” -George E.
“The staff at STR is as first class as they come. It’s nice to have people who genuinely care about their clients…” -Robert D.
“StR has changed my life. What an amazing experience to have. The staff is amazing and I couldn’t ask for a better place to just be ME.” -Tiffany W.