Anxiety Can Lead to Addiction.

Anyone who has ever experienced significant feelings of anxiety and panic knows it is a hugely physical and uncomfortable sensation. Often, people will do anything to avoid the feelings of anxiety. Even reaching out for drugs and alcohol. Our culture supports reaching outside ourselves for solutions and anxiety is no different.

Chances are, You are Self-Soothing Around Anxiety.

Some of your solutions may be harmless enough. Some, like reaching out for alcohol and drugs are downright destructive. In an effort to soothe your feelings and manage your life more easily, you may have a tendency to lean into drugs and alcohol abuse to control your feelings and smooth out the rough edges. Most experts now believe anxiety is the underpinning issue in the area of addiction, regardless of the form (i.e. drugs, alcohol, sugar, sexual addiction, internet addictions, gaming addiction, gambling addiction, porn, food, bingeing, even over-working...all types of addictions). It makes sense you would want to feel better, but it is important to choose the right tools to self-soothe with.

You Can Unwittingly Undermine Your Well-being.

When we start reaching out for alcohol, drugs, and other excesses to manage our feelings, we can unwittingly put ourselves in a downward spiral into addiction. It can start off easily enough—a way to get on the plane, to manage to awkwardness of social situations, to ease our jitters, or just to get from one end of the day to the other. But one thing leads to another and we can end up dealing with not just anxiety, but an addiction, and the added impact of depression, physical side-effects, and the multitude of ways addictions dismantle our lives.

You are Following Healthy Impulses.

Your desire to help yourself feel better is a healthy desire and emerges from a good place within yourself. What you need are appropriate and effective tools. Not street drugs, alcohol, or behavioral addictions.

There is Good News.

Unattended to anxiety can wreck havoc in your life. The good news is there are tools you can learn now to reduce your anxiety today. The more you know about how to take care of yourself, the more effectively you can work with reducing your experience of anxiety and panic every day.