Addiction and Anxiety: Understanding the Hidden Relationship

One thing we see often at our addiction treatment centre in Canada is clients who come to our door, wondering what this constant feeling of impending doom, panic, fear, and aching sense of dread actually is, and why it’s there.

Some may recognize this experience as anxiety, but knowing something is only half the battle, maybe even less than half.

Understanding and managing mental illness starts with naming your struggles in a safe, supportive environment, which is key to progress.

But not everyone has the capacity (or even desire) to stand up bravely and say: 

‘Hi, my name is X, and I have an anxiety disorder. Oh, and I also use substances to cope with the harrowing symptoms that seem to follow me everywhere I go.’

As a leading rehab centre in Canada, we see firsthand how often mental health disorders like addiction and anxiety occur together.

But which comes first?

This is one of the most common questions we receive from clients. Yet it’s difficult to answer, because each person’s coping patterns are uniquely shaped by childhood experiences, genetics, and their individual journey.

While it may be the most challenging question to answer, it’s also the one we hear most frequently.

Ultimately, having an answer can only help so much. Still, you may find what follows both reassuring and helpful.

What the research says 

If we look at the research on this, mental health conditions like anxiety, trauma, and depression, for instance, often fuel addiction, where people self-medicate to cope with how they’re feeling (or not feeling), as is frequently the case.

That said, it is also possible for addiction to cause mental health issues like depression, anxiety, and even psychosis. 

For instance, if we look at cannabis research, studies show that regular use increases your risk of depression and anxiety, and more potent cannabis can lead to severe mental health issues like psychosis or schizophrenia.

Moreover, ecstasy can cause hallucinations and memory issues, which many users find incredibly frightening and distressing. 

While substance use is often associated with a range of issues, a consistent pattern emerges: most substances – such as stimulants and hallucinogens – are more likely to trigger or exacerbate pre-existing mental health conditions like trauma and anxiety, rather than serve as their sole cause.

Addiction and anxiety: Understanding the hidden relationship

The truth is, understanding the profound interconnectedness between these two disorders is crucial. However, you may be surprised to learn how much of this is overlooked in specific cultures and communities.

In Canada alone, anxiety disorders are the most prevalent mental health concerns in the country.

Furthermore, substance use disorders such as opioid addiction and alcoholism continue to affect individuals in British Columbia and the Atlantic provinces.

The association between addiction and anxiety often goes unrecognized, which takes us back a few decades when traditional treatment models only focused on symptom management, not root causes.

This approach often led to a surge in relapse cases as the issues that existed beneath the surface of unhealthy coping remained unresolved.

Both anxiety and addiction tend to reinforce one another in a vicious cycle that can feel almost impossible to break, particularly when you’re the one caught up in the storm of it all.

In case you’re wondering, here’s a breakdown of how this cycle develops.

Anxiety symptoms like fear, panic, looming worry or feeling like you have a pit in your stomach the size of a grenade are often what lead people to want to use alcohol, cannabis, or prescription medications to help alleviate symptoms like:

• Constant worry.
• Anxiety or panic attacks that often come out of nowhere.
• Social anxiety.
• Trauma-related fear or PTSD symptoms.
• Chronic stress and emotional tension.

Specific coping mechanisms, such as substance use, although useful in the short term, can actually increase anxiety in the long term and can quickly lead to dependence.

When this happens, and it does more often than what is written about, the person is diagnosed with what is called a co-occurring disorder, requiring them to seek treatment at an inpatient addiction facility to treat both issues simultaneously.

When addiction makes anxiety worse

Alcohol and drugs are often like the proverbial salt being rubbed into an anxious wound or the fuel thrown on top of an already blazing fire. 

Choose whichever analogy resonates most with your experience -the result is still the same: they tend to intensify the distress rather than soothe it.

Those who drink or use substances to cope with anxiety disorder often realize, relatively quickly, that the two don’t mix well together, at least not in the long term anyway.

Short-term, substances may feel like a warm, soothing balm pouring over your symptoms; it’s when the ‘high’ wears off: only then do you really know the truth of things.

As substance use increases, your brain’s stress responses become disrupted. This can cause:

• Sleep disturbances.
• Severe irritability and agitation.
• Withdrawal-related anxiety.
• Decreased emotional resilience.
• Heightened nervousness, feelings of panic, dread, etc.

The cruel irony here is that the very thing an individual uses to calm their mind often intensifies the same symptoms they were trying to escape, leading to various complications, including substance use disorder and even physical health issues.

Signs you may be struggling with both addiction and anxiety 

Remember when we spoke about co-occurring disorder treatment earlier? 

Well, it’s likely that if you experience the following, you may benefit from this combined treatment approach:

• Using substances to alleviate your anxiety or help you sleep.
• Feeling panic or fear when trying to quit or cut back.
• Increased restlessness or irritability.
• Trouble controlling worry or racing thoughts.
• Feeling like you are trapped in a cycle of stress and substance use.
• Physical symptoms like nausea, chest tightness, sweating, and trembling.
• Avoiding social situations without the presence of drugs or alcohol.

These symptoms are all signs that your nervous system is overwhelmed, and although deeply unpleasant, they are extremely common.

If you or someone you love has any of the above symptoms, it’s essential that you consider reaching out for professional support to help you get a handle on the situation.

Since anxiety and addiction rarely resolve on their own, seeking professional treatment is essential to break the cycle and prevent worsening symptoms and other health issues.

The most likely outcome of not seeking treatment is matters getting worse: increased anxiety = increased substance use to cope. 

With proper treatment and support, breaking the cycle of anxiety and addiction is achievable, leading many to live healthy, substance-free lives.

Contact our compassionate team at Centres for Health and Healing today for a safe, private discussion about how we can help you move forward.

Why integrated care matters

Most rehab centres in Canada understand the importance of integrated care in recovery, particularly when it comes to the significance of dual diagnosis treatment, an approach that addresses mental health and substance use at the same time.

Treating addiction without treating anxiety puts individuals at a much higher risk of relapse – why?

Because the root cause of an individual’s distress, whether it be trauma, loss, chronic shame, or burnout, remains unaddressed.

Sooner or later, the unhealthy coping that doesn’t seem harmful in the moment but was the very thing that brought you to treatment in the first place begins to creep back in.

It may start with a simple thought of what it would feel like to drink or use again.

Maybe you find yourself gravitating toward old, unhealthy social circles that enabled your previous, self-destructive behaviours. 

Perhaps you tell yourself, ‘one drink couldn’t hurt’ or ‘one last hit and never again.’

The problem is, once you do the ‘thing’ that initially brought you to treatment, your brain’s reward system reactivates, making you crave more of that particular substance or behaviour.

And before you know it, you’re back in the same cycle of anxiety and substance use as you were before.

This is one reason, among many, why the team at Centres for Health and Healing use a blended approach to recovery, one that involves:

• A safe, supervised medical detox to help rid your body of substances and toxins.
• Trauma-informed treatment to help address any underlying ‘stored’ trauma in your body and nervous system.
• Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) to help you explore and unpack your anxiety symptoms, allowing you to develop healthy coping mechanisms and rebuild resilience.
• Medication management, when necessary.
• Mindfulness and nervous-system-based practices like breathwork, meditation, yoga, and other body-based exercises.
• Family and group support to help you feel less isolated and alone, which can help increase your sense of purpose, identity, and belonging.
• Aftercare and ongoing community support programs to help you navigate life after addiction treatment, giving you the tools and techniques to manage any cravings or stress you may experience once you return home.  

An integrated approach to anxiety and addiction recovery helps restore balance to your nervous system, rewiring old, unhealthy responses like substance use and replacing them with healthier alternatives such as breathwork, connection, and movement.

At Centres for Health and Healing, our team believes that recovery is not just about stopping a behaviour or substance – it’s so much more than that.

It’s about exploring what lies beneath your anxiety and the desire to numb, distract or escape; it’s also about learning new ways to connect, cope, and thrive.

After all, life is more than just surviving something, and that alone is a considerable achievement. 

However, it’s also about learning to thrive, rediscovering or, more to the point, remembering your capacity for aliveness and purpose.

It’s all within you – buried under years of stress, trauma, and unhelpful coping patterns that once may have served you, but are now preventing you from moving into this new, more empowered version of yourself.

You survived, that’s a fact. But now, it’s time to live, to thrive.

And all this, and more, is possible with effective, safe, compassionate support from people who get it.

Contact our professional team in Canada today, and learn how we can help you move forward with intention, joy, and hope for a brighter, substance-free future.