ADD And Addiction
Mental illness is one of the leading risk factors when it comes to alcohol and drug addiction. Living with a mental illness can be extremely difficult and make you feel lost and alone. Moreover, one of the issues is that there are medications that can help with mental illnesses such as ADD, but they’re addictive. There are others who develop addictions to other drugs because of their ADD. Therefore, you need to learn how ADD and addiction coexist and can cause your life to become highly unmanageable.
ADD and Addiction to Medications
ADD can be an extremely difficult mental illness to live with, and it doesn’t only happen to children and young people. More and more people are discovering they have ADD in their 30s, as well as in later years of their lives. Specifically, ADD is a mental illness in which the cognitive functions of the brain don’t allow a person to focus on what they want or need to focus on. When the brain is stimulated, it can become hyper-focused on other thoughts or activities. For example, this can lead to a person having the following symptoms:
- Difficulty focusing
- Absent-mindedness
- Forgetfulness
- Mood swings
- Anxiety
Various medications, like Adderall and Ritalin, help the brain focus and decrease the symptoms of ADD. However, the problem is that these medications also stimulate the part of the brain responsible for experiencing pleasure. When taking these medications for a long period of time, you can develop a dependence and tolerance. This means that you need the medication to feel well, and you need more in order to feel its effects. When this happens, you need the help of an Adderall addiction treatment center in order to recover.
ADD and Addiction to Other Substances
When living with ADD, life can become extremely difficult, and you can have many different issues. Additionally, it can be difficult to succeed in school or have a successful career when your symptoms go untreated. Dealing with these stressful situations in life can lead to being anxious and experiencing depression. Because of this, you might turn to other substances like alcohol, opioids, or other drugs to cope. Therefore, ADD and addiction can go hand-in-hand.
When you start self-medicating, everything can begin falling apart. While you might have started to abuse substances to deal with the stresses of life, having issues with your relationships can make life more stressful. Eventually, you begin depending on these substances just to feel well, and even though they aren’t helping, you can’t stop. Addiction involves losing the power of choice when it comes to drinking or using drugs, which is why you need help.
Treatment for ADD and Addiction
No matter what your situation is, addiction recovery is possible when you go to a facility that specializes in dual diagnosis treatment. When you’re struggling with ADD and addiction, it’s important that each is treated separately. If you want to experience long-term recovery, you need to learn how to manage your ADD in a much healthier way. Therapy will also teach you a better way of living without having to turn to any substances.
Silver Pines Treatment Center helps people who are struggling with ADD and addiction. We have an entire staff that is dedicated to helping you learn how to live life successfully without drugs or alcohol. For example, some of the therapy programs we offer here include:
To learn more about our treatment programs, call us today at 267.719.8689. By understanding ADD and addiction, you can find your path to a better life.