As mental health conditions, anxiety and depression aren’t exactly “physical.”
But that doesn’t mean they can’t put you at an increased risk for physical health concerns.
If either anxiety or depression goes untreated, they can drastically increase your risk for substance dependence. Addiction starts in the brain, and anxiety and depression send your brain searching for ways to numb the pain. Here’s what you need to know.
Anxiety, Depression, and Substance Abuse: The Connection
Look around.
Chances are, you’ll find someone who lives with both a mental health condition and substance use disorder. Mental illness and drug addiction frequently co-occur because they feed into each other. This phenomenon is known as dual diagnosis.
According to the 2024 National Survey on Drug Use and Health from SAMHSA, just under 35% of adults with any mental illness also had a co-occurring Substance Use Disorder (SUD) in 2024. That’s 61.5 million adults. More than 1 in 3.
When you have untreated depression or anxiety, your brain begins to crave the escape that drugs and alcohol provide. Alcohol numbs you. Stimulants allow you to function. Opioids block out your emotional pain completely…
But they don’t make it go away.
That’s why anxiety and depression are such risk factors for addiction. If someone never seeks professional care from a drug rehab center serving Northern Virginia with experience in treating mental health disorders alongside addiction, they’ll only continue self-medicating until they become fully dependent on the substance.
Why Leaving Anxiety Untreated Is Dangerous
Anxiety can ruin your day.
It can ruin your week. It can destroy your entire life if you don’t get it under control.
People with untreated anxiety often experience racing thoughts, constant feelings of worry, and general agitation. Living like that every day is awful. But for many people, drugs or alcohol offer temporary relief.
The danger is that:
- Alcohol and tranquilizers produce the relaxing sensations that anxiety sufferers desire.
- Stimulants help you overcome anxiety-induced avoidance.
- Opioids numb your emotional response to anxiety.
Your brain notices that substance use alleviates the unpleasant feelings of anxiety. Next thing you know, your brain doesn’t bother dealing with anxiety on its own. It just turns to drugs or alcohol instead.
And soon, you need them to function at all.
This is how substance use and anxiety feed each other. The more you use, the worse your anxiety will become in the long run. But that doesn’t stop someone from using it if they don’t receive proper care.
How Depression Increases Your Risk
Sadness is temporary.
But depression is a constant battle. Depression makes you feel sad. It also causes you to lose all motivation. It destroys your sleep schedule. And it can make even the simplest tasks feel impossible.
Nearly a third of American adults experienced symptoms of anxiety and/or depression as of early 2023. But plenty of those adults don’t get treatment for that depression.
So what happens if they don’t?
When someone begins using substances like drugs or alcohol to try and feel better, they’re only numbing the depression – not fixing it. Sure, they may feel better for a little while, but all of those substances can massively worsen depression over time.
Depression and addiction worsen each other.
As your depression gets worse, you use more to try and feel better. And it’s easy to become dependent on those feelings of temporary relief before you realise what’s happening. That’s why integrated care that addresses both your depression and substance use at the same time is so important.
How Dual Diagnosis Treatment Programs Can Help
Drug treatment doesn’t have to end in relapse.
One of the most effective ways to get sober when you struggle with an underlying mental health issue is through medication assisted treatment, or MAT. MAT allows you to address both your addiction and mental health condition at the same time.
Here’s what to expect from a medication assisted treatment program:
- You’ll take medication that helps regulate your brain chemistry. This makes both cravings and withdrawal more manageable.
- You’ll receive therapy that addresses the root causes of your substance use. If anxiety or depression are driving you to use, we’ll help you learn how to cope without substances.
- You’ll learn long-term coping skills that will serve you for years to come. Recovery is about living a happier, healthier life. We’ll show you how.
Unlike other treatments that focus solely on addiction, MAT tackles your mental health condition as well. We create a customized care plan based on your history and needs. That way, we can target the root cause of your substance use.
MAT isn’t about getting sober.
It’s about staying sober for good.
The Danger Signs
Here’s the thing about anxiety, depression, and addiction: sometimes they’re hard to recognize until it’s too late.
They creep up on you slowly until drinking or drinking become a part of your daily routine. But there are a few telltale signs you can watch for to determine if your substance use is beginning to spiral out of control.
If you find yourself:
- Using with the sole purpose of relaxing or feeling “normal”
- Using more each time, and finding it difficult to stop
- Feeling like you can’t handle daily stress without using
- Isolating yourself from family and friends
- Noticing depressive episodes or anxiety attacks intensify when you’re not using
It’s time to seek help.
You can recover from anxiety and depression without self-medicating with substances. But you’ll never know until you try. And the longer you wait, the harder it will be to overcome your addiction.
Long Term Risks of Substance Abuse
Leaving anxiety and depression untreated can cause more than just drug dependence.
It can make your treatment process a whole lot more difficult in the long run. The longer you use substances to self-medicate your anxiety and depression, the harder it becomes to break those addictive patterns. Why?
Your brain chemistry adjusts to the presence of drugs or alcohol. As your addiction worsens, your cravings will become more intense and your withdrawal symptoms will become more difficult to handle. But I’m sure you guessed that part.
What you might not know is that your anxiety and depression haven’t gone away in the meantime. If you leave your substance use untreated for too long, you’ll have to deal with your mental health condition plus a substance dependence on top of it.
That’s why integrated treatment that tackles both issues simultaneously is so critical.
You wouldn’t treat a broken arm without caring for the injury causing you pain. Don’t treat your addiction without addressing the root cause of your substance use.
It should also be noted that 1 in 5 needed treatment but did not receive care in 2024. That’s nearly half of the 35% of adults who experienced dual diagnosis that year. When it comes to mental health and addiction, getting help early is everything.
Conclusion
Millions of Americans deal with anxiety.
Millions more struggle with depression. But you don’t have to let anxiety and depression control your life by resorting to drugs and alcohol.
Left untreated, they’re both incredibly risky factors for substance dependence. Anxiety and depression both cause people to self-medicate with substances they come to rely on. Substance abuse only makes anxiety and depression worse.
Breaking that cycle once it’s already in place is difficult.
But that doesn’t mean it can’t be done.
With the right drug treatment program on your side, you can overcome your substance use and learn to manage your anxiety and/or depression without escaping reality. Don’t wait until it’s too late.
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