emotional stress

AToN Center Addiction Treatment in San
Diego, CA |emotional stress

Addiction and Emotional Vulnerability

October 1, 2017 // by Aton Center

The biological and psychological impact of drugs and alcohol on an individual can result in significant emotional vulnerability. A life of addiction is stressful with dysregulated thoughts, emotions, and relationships. Heightened emotional vulnerability is the result. High emotional vulnerability involves increased sensitivity and reactivity to your environment and relationships. An individual’s ability to manage day to day stressors increasingly diminishes.

Big reactions come with only a little provocation. Thinking gets cloudy. Relationships are filled with turmoil. An individual gets stuck in their emotion and is set up with a high sensitivity for the next emotional event. The cycle keeps going and growing.

Problems arise when emotions take control. A person struggles to regulate their own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. An individual gets stuck and can’t change how they feel. Attention span decreases and irritability increases. A person struggles to focus and basic tasks grow more difficult. The ultimate threat is the increase in emotionally driven impulsivity. Long term negative consequences can be the result of acting right away when intense emotions are felt.

Attending to emotional vulnerability is imperative when treating an addiction to drugs and alcohol. The ability to effectively manage emotions and navigate relationships is fundamental in relapse prevention. High emotional vulnerability is great risk for the newly sober in the path of recovery. Evidenced based practices such as Cognitive Behavioral and Dialectical Behavioral Therapies provide education, skills, tools, and interventions.

Grounding oneself in mindful thinking supports effective management of difficult emotions. Addictions impact on a person’s emotions should be repaired and rebuilt for success and long- term recovery.

Matt VanDusen
AToN Center 888-535-1516

Isolation and Addiction

September 17, 2017 // by Aton Center

Isolation and loneliness have an overwhelming effect on drug addiction and alcoholism causing people to feel sad hopeless and abandoned.

When we are actively using drugs to cope with depression, anxiety and stressful situations, we are doing so to avoid our feelings and reality. As the disease of addiction progresses, we lose friends and damage relationship which just causes us to isolate even more. We also isolate to hide our drug use and to avoid judgment and confrontation from others.

The trouble with isolating ourselves when we are using drugs and drinking is we start to believe the lies that our addiction is telling us. Our addiction can carry a lot of stigma and shame. It may cause others to worry uncontrollably about us so we isolate more in the hopes that if we aren’t being seen then people will worry less.

Emotional isolation occurs when an individual avoids meaningful conversation and withholds their feelings.

Physical isolation is when a person removes themselves from the presence of other people. As the individual isolates more and more and the addiction progresses, changes in the brain start to occur causing them to become more consumed by their substance of abuse and prioritizing their drugs over everything else.

Rat Park

In 1978, Canadian psychologist Bruce K. Alexander conducted an experiment with the help of the Simon Fraser University called “Rat Park.”

One of the goals of Alexander’s experiment was to show that drugs alone do not cause addiction but that a person’s living environment can add to it. Alexander constructed” Rat Park” with food, wheels and balls to play with, plenty of space to move around in, and 16-20 rats of both sexes to mingling with. In this experiment, the social rats had the choice to drink fluids from one of two dispensers. One of the containers had just water in it and the other container had a morphine solution in it. The rats in “Rat Park” consistently resisted the morphine water over the plain water.

Alexander also conducted another experiment where the rats were isolated and starved for hours, and then hooked up to various intravenous needles implanted into their jugular veins. The rats would consistently press a lever to inject themselves with large doses of heroin, amphetamine and cocaine. What was interesting was the rats that were caged up for 57 days chose plain water over the other drugs when moved to “Rat Park” and voluntarily going through withdrawal.

Today, psychologists and substance abuse expert acknowledge the fact that drugs and alcohol addiction is mental as well as physical. Humans do not have to be physically isolated to become addicted to a substance. Emotional isolation can produce the same affects.

These experiments led treatment experts to advocate the need for a comprehensive recovery program that addresses the mental and emotional needs of recovering addicts, not just their physical needs.

For the best chance at beating addiction you need an environmental change, a holistic approach to address a person’s mental, social and spiritual needs as well as medical and physical care.

Johnina Noar, CADC-II
AToN Center 888-535-1516

Coping with Panic Attacks, Mindfully

June 29, 2017 // by Aton Center

Panics attack may come suddenly and feel terrifying. They often leave us feeling very alone, isolated and very afraid. Panic attacks may be caused by perceived fear, worry or trauma. For those in recovery from addiction it is essential to be extremely cautious when responding to increased anxiety, depression or panic attacks.

Mindfulness practices offer the person in recovery a protocol to turn to when feeling a panic attack. This article from Mindful (https://www.mindful.org/4-ways-curb-panic-attack/) offers Four Mindfulness Tips for healthy coping skills when feeling overwhelmed by a panic attack. Included in this article is a free, 5-Minute Guided Breathing Meditation.

At AToN Center, residents learn and practice Mindfulness coping skills to use when the effects of guilt, shame, anxiety, fear or panic are recognized. Using coping skills like these help the suffering individual deal effectively with their feelings while remaining sober.

Chris McDuffie, RADT-1
Chemical Dependency Counselor
AToN Center 888-535-1516

Yoga As A Means To A Stronger Self

March 26, 2017 // by Aton Center

Many addicts suffer from physical, psychological, and emotional stress as a result of the guilt, destructive behavior, and lifestyle consequences of addiction.

According to proponents of yoga as a path to addiction treatment, yoga poses, breathing techniques, and deep thinking can help practitioners establish a peaceful union between the body, mind, and spirit.

The holistic services offered at AToN Center are an integral part of the mind, body healing experience.

AToN Center 888-535-1516

Managing Stress And Relapse Prevention

December 27, 2016 // by Aton Center

At AToN Center, we acknowledge the importance of taking care of the mind and as well as the body in an effort to maximize our resident’s quality of life. Research suggests that stress is an important risk factor for the development of substance use disorders as well as relapse. This is because many of the systems of our bodies are activated by stress. We believe it is paramount to help our residents learn how to manage stress as an important part of their relapse prevention plans.

Part of my role at the AToN center is to offer Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback as a means to this end. This type of biofeedback monitors the heart rhythms and signals the user (with visual and auditory cues) when their heart rhythms are ordered and rhythmic (called coherence). This coherence is present when the heart is operating in a healthy and efficient manner. During these individual biofeedback sessions, different stress management skills are taught to our residents – such as breathing retraining, guided imagery, meditation and progressive muscle relaxation – while connected to the biofeedback device. This allows our residents to learn which skills produce the most positive effects so they can incorporate them into their daily lives. This is one of many services offered at AToN Center.

Cassandra Cannon, Ph.D.
AToN Center 888-535-1516

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