Losing someone you love is never easy. Navigating feelings of grief and loss can be extremely difficult, with many people experiencing a decline in their physical and mental health when they lose someone in their life. Unfortunately, some people who try to combat grief may turn to drugs for relief. Likewise, people who were already struggling with drug addiction prior to grief may experience worsening substance abuse after losing a loved one. Keep reading to learn more about how grief can worsen drug abuse below.
At Hammocks on the Edisto, we are a leading women’s drug rehab committed to providing one-of-a-kind treatment to best meet each client’s unique recovery needs. We understand each client’s recovery journey is different. That’s why we offer a comprehensive range of addiction therapies so you can receive the personalized care you need to lead a healthier, happier life. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help your recovery journey.
5 Ways Grief Can Worsen Drug Abuse
Although death is an inevitable part of life, this does not undermine how difficult it can be to process the death of a loved one. Below are several ways how grief can worsen drug abuse that highlight it’s essential to ask for help if you are struggling with drug addiction, loss, or a mental illness.
Grief Can Lead to Worsening Drug Abuse
First, grief can lead to a worsening of drug abuse. This is because some people may turn to drugs and alcohol to cope with feelings of sadness and loneliness they are experiencing from losing someone in their life. Therefore, whether you have a history of drug addiction or not, grief can increase your risk of turning to drugs or alcohol to cope, which, rather than addressing the grief in a healthy manner, leads to a slippery slope of addiction.
Unresolved Grief Can Lead to Drug Dependence
As mentioned briefly above, using drugs or alcohol to cope with grief does nothing to treat your grief and move forward with your life in a positive direction. Rather, unresolved grief can lead to further drug dependence, which only worsens your drug abuse. Likewise, abusing drugs and alcohol will only temporarily relieve feelings of sadness or loneliness, and does nothing to actually address your grief in a productive manner.
Grief Raises Risk of Making More Impulsive Decisions
Grief can also increase your vulnerability and make you more at risk for making more impulsive decisions. If you’ve already struggled with drug abuse prior to losing a loved one, this can look like abusing more drugs or alcohol than what your body is used to as an attempt to relieve your negative emotions. However, abusing more drugs will not only worsen your drug addiction but can lead to potentially life-threatening consequences.
Increased Isolation Can Worsen Drug Abuse
Grief can already put a strain on your relationships and make you feel more isolated for a time as you process losing someone you love. However, increased isolation typically can lead to worsening drug abuse to cope with feelings of sadness and loneliness.
Grief Can Make It Difficult to Ask for Help
Finally, grief can make it that much more difficult to ask for help with your drug addiction. This is because although you may be struggling with a severe addiction, you may feel like you don’t want to “burden” your family and friends by talking about your struggles with addiction as they are also grieving. However, this is an untrue belief–you should never feel ashamed or afraid to ask for help when it comes to working toward recovery.
Help Is Available
Now you know more about how grief can worsen drug abuse. If you are struggling with drug addiction and grief, it’s essential you seek treatment not only for your drug addiction but also mental health care to learn how to cope with your grief in a healthy manner. Losing a loved one is hard, and seeking professional support from a therapist offers you a safe space with a licensed professional to effectively work through these negative emotions.
At Hammocks on the Edisto, we help clients safely overcome addiction so they can achieve long-term sobriety. No longer do you have to suffer in silence with your addiction. We help women struggling with drug addiction receive the personalized care they need to best support their road to recovery. Ready to begin your recovery journey? Contact us today!
