What is the emotional meaning of addictions?

Addictions are an epidemic, a problem that millions of people around the world suffer from and that affects both their physical and mental health and that of their families and loved ones.

Whether it's to a substance like alcohol or cocaine, or to food, sex, or other addictive behaviors, addictions don't they arise spontaneously or on a whim, but because they have lived through highly traumatic personal events or, at least, emotionally disturbing.

The emotional causes of addictions can be very varied, and then we are going to explore them, also seeing how they make it difficult for patients to free themselves when they are not properly resolved.

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The emotional causes of addictions

People don't become addicted overnight. Addictions usually originate as a consequence of a highly tense, emotionally disturbing life and with traumatic episodes in their personal history. Whether it's tobacco, alcohol, cocaine, marijuana, or even behaviors like compulsive sex, eating, or shopping, the truth is that their addiction is not generated spontaneously and casually in mentally healthy people, with high self-esteem and security.

Addiction, both substance and behavioral, represents a high emotional cost for both patients and their families. These problems develop in environments where there were previous emotional disturbances, where feelings such as guilt, worthlessness, anxiety, shame and sadness have predisposed the person to fall into the clutches of addictions. Whatever type of addiction it is, it creates emotional complications for everyone who falls into them, in addition to affecting the social environment of the addicted patient.

Naturally, the greatest emotional impact of substance use or addiction to certain behaviors is experienced by the addict himself. However, spouses, children, parents, grandparents, siblings, extended family and close friends can also be severely impacted by their loved one's addiction. Your emotional reactions to the situation can be very varied, but stress, pain and discouragement are omnipresent emotions.

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Emotional risk factors

People who use drugs or engage in problematic addictive behavior often do so as their way of escaping from the unpleasant emotions they are experiencing or trying to forget psychological stress or a traumatic memory. In fact, adult addicts are often individuals whose childhood was marked by traumatic events. Adulthood is also not exempt from being the scene of traumatic events, which make the person feel emotionally overwhelmed by stress, sadness, anxiety, guilt and psychological tension in general.

Some of the most common emotional risk factors for addiction are:

• Physical or sexual emotional abuse in childhood.
• Distant or neglectful parenting styles.
• Being a victim of bullying.
• Being a victim of domestic violence.
• Survive a life-threatening natural disaster.
• Losing a loved one through death, divorce or disappearance.

All these events can cause the person to develop deep psychological problems., encouraged by emotions such as guilt or shame when thinking that part of the misfortunes that have happened to him are his responsibility. Certainly, there are individuals who blame themselves for having been sexually abused in their childhood, being victims of domestic violence or of the death of a family member, wondering over and over again what they could have done to deserve that or how they could have avoided.

Addiction, especially to substances, develops easily among people who they use them to stabilize their emotional state, either to calm their pain and silence their traumatic memories or to feel something, because trauma can cause deep sadness and anxiety or apathy and disconnection from the world. Regardless of what they take drugs or engage in addictive behaviors for, this strategy will not work for them in the long run, if it has ever worked for them.

Focusing on drugs, the human body ends up generating tolerance towards them. As the user's body gets used to the substance, more and more of the drug will have to be taken in order to achieve the desired effects, be they calming or activating. This is the main risk for the development of an addiction because the greater the tolerance, the greater the amount to be taken and, consequently, the greater the risk of physical dependence.

Drug use causes a paradoxical situation. First, they are taken to stop feeling bad, but as the person embarks on an addiction from which it is increasingly difficult to get out, they feel worse emotionally. What initially served to suppress or forget painful memories and emotions is the same thing that now causes such emotions because not being able to get rid of a drug causes discomfort, feelings of anxiety and a feeling of being a Useless.

A) Yes, in certain cases the emotional causes of addictions become the consequences of the same, much more serious. In turn, they increase the risk that the patient will resort to another addiction to get rid of the unpleasant emotions of the addiction. first, which initiates a dangerous vicious dynamic of more and more addictive behaviors, be it with substances such as behavioral. When addiction sets in, the person experiences dramatic mood swings, low self-esteem, and low self-confidence.

About half of those with a substance use disorder have other mental problems. Among the most common mental disorders we have mood disorders, such as depression, as well as anxiety, bipolar disorder and behavioral problems.

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Emotional consequences of addictions

As we said, addictions have an important origin in emotional problems, but they also cause them. In other words, the same emotions that lead a person to consume end up appearing when they become addicted, but in a much worse way. Emotional stability is seriously damaged after falling into an addiction, either to a substance or to a behavior.

Some of the reactions caused by substance abuse include the following.

1. Guilt

Leaving aside the denial that many experience, these patients are aware of the consequences of their behavior for those closest to them, which makes them feel very guilty. The guilt of feeling that they are not able to stop their problem behavior can overcome them and cause them a lot of pain.. Unfortunately, guilt and shame eat away at a person's self-esteem, and the lack of it makes it more difficult for addicts to find the courage to break the addiction.

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2. Afraid

People with drug addictions fear the stigma of exposure and possible loss of relationships and employment. In addition, they live in fear that if more people find out about their addiction than they know about their addiction, they will completely lose their dignity and be exposed to social criticism.

• Related article: "What is fear? Characteristics of this emotion"

3. helplessness and helplessness

Many addicted people try to break free of the addiction, but have a hard time getting sober without anyone's help. After trying for some time, they begin to feel powerless, at the mercy of their addiction, which they feel as a total loss of freedom and control of their life. This makes the situation even worse, losing self-esteem and not believing they are capable of getting out of the well.

4. Depression

Addictions are an obstacle to achieving vital goals, in addition to alienating those who suffer from their personal obligations if they do nothing or seek help to change their situation. All this contributes to the generation of feelings of deep sadness, which lead the patient to depression.

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5. Go to

Addicted people are angry with the world, with others, and especially with themselves. They feel that the world has turned its back on them and leaves them no hope to move forward, they may see others as people who have either made them fall into addiction or do not support them and, above all, After all, they see themselves as people without willpower and without the ability to free themselves from the tyranny of addiction.

6. Resignation

At a certain point, many addicted people simply give up and convince themselves that there is nothing they can do to break free from the addiction. Experts consider this point to be especially dangerous in the course of addiction, since it means that the person believes they have reached rock bottom, that there is no hope for him or her, that they have no future. You need urgent help, or else something very serious could happen.

The effect of drug addiction on family and friends

Family and friends witness their loved one descending into a spiral of drug and other addictions. This process leads to making them feel the same emotions as the addict himself: anger, helplessness, depression, fear, guilt... Addiction affects the whole family, generating a hostile and insecure environment for all of them, something that, if not properly solved, worsens the addiction even more, making it increasingly difficult get free.

Uncertainty about what might happen in the future is another emotion experienced by loved ones of addicted people. Substance addiction is a life-threatening condition, something that is well known to loved ones of the addict, fearful that a day get a call or a knock on the door to let them know you've had an accident, overdosed, or ended your lifetime. living with an addicted person produces constant insecurity, accompanied by anxiety.

The treatment

Willpower can be helpful in getting rid of addiction, but really professional help is the most effective for this type of problem. Treatment serves to manage the emotions that triggered the addiction in the first place, while also manage those that are the product of the addiction itself and that increase the risk that it will worse.

If it is considered appropriate, especially with alcoholics and people addicted to strong drugs such as cocaine, enter a rehabilitation center. In these places there are other patients, all of them working together to achieve the same goals, which is sobriety and freedom from the chains of addiction. In these centers, the messages are positive and hopeful, where patients are encouraged to imagine a promising future, free from dangerous and harmful drugs.

During therapy, patients also learn how to recognize triggers that motivate them to use drugs, to avoid them or learn to live with them, fighting against their desire to consume or "craving" and avoiding to ground their sobriety. They will also develop strategies to resist their inner voice that tells them that “for a little bit nothing happens”.

It is essential that the family be involved throughout the therapy, since the family environment is also origin of the emotional causes of addictions, at the same time that they also receive their consequences. Family members should be allowed to talk about their emotions and the impact addiction has had on their lives. The idea in family therapy is not to blame or shame the addicted person, as these emotions are never productive. What should be done is to facilitate good communication, mutual respect and generate more constructive family dynamics.