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Praise and recognition were given to the organizers of the 2017 Addiction Conference. It was an event where presenters were invited to speak about drug addiction. If you were not a seasoned speaker but instead a former addict in recovery, you were encouraged to share your experiences and how you surpassed your daily challenges as a recovering addict. The result was overwhelming. Success stories were shared, and topics such as addiction trends, case studies, best practice programs, and the effects of drug addiction on one’s emotional well-being.
Emotional Effects of Drug Addiction
Most often, people are pushed to substance and drug abuse because of his desire to forget their problems or escape reality. Or perhaps they suffered a traumatic event in the past or suffering one today, leaving them burdened by feelings of depression, anxiety, and stress.
There are a lot of emotional risk factors for a drug addict, including exposure to negligent parents, multiple bullying experiences, domestic abuse victim, emotional, physical, or sexual abuse in the past, death of a loved one, among others.
People who use illicit substances to forget or numb their painful emotions. However, this is not a coping mechanism that will be effective in the long-term. Consequently, drug tolerance progresses, and the drug user will want to consume more and more of their drug or substance of choice just to experience short-term relief. Additionally, these types of drugs form new chemical substances in one’s brain that may result in heightened emotional instability. A person may have been using these substances to suppress their bad memories and the negative emotions that accompany them. But when the person becomes a drug addict, he manifests with erratic moods that may result in feelings of insecurity, confusion, depression, and worthlessness.
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There is nearly 40% of individuals with drug abuse problems that are also diagnosed with one kind of mental disorder. Anxiety disorder is common among these drug addicts, and the devastating emotions that are produced will only explain why many of those suffering from addiction prefer to consume alcohol and illicit drugs.