Anxiety is different from stress. Living with anxiety means living with a mental health condition in which you experience the burden of a persistently overwhelming sense of worrying. Stress can cause anxiety and vice versa. Meeting the symptoms of a diagnosable anxiety disorder means living with the influence of anxiety on your quality of life and ability to function without any stress.
Addiction and alcoholism are commonly co-occurring with anxiety disorders. Drinking alcohol and using drugs helps to numb the brain and relieve the pressure of anxious thinking. Becoming a coping mechanism, anxiety and co-occurring addiction can become a dangerous duo.
Treatment is available for both addiction and anxiety, as they are co-occurring, or as they are independent. Anxiety doesn’t mean you just have a lot of stress or worry too much. You can learn how to cope with life in a healthy and effective way.
These facts come from The Independent:
- 30% of people living with anxiety cope with it in ways that don’t include a therapist or medication. They might talk to a friend, take a walk, or use maladaptive behaviors for coping.
- Around 1 in 5 people feel anxious most of or close to most of the time.
- More women struggle with anxiety than men do.
- 45% of people who live with anxiety feel that their financial stress is the cause.
- About half of those people feel that worrying about their loved ones causes their stress and anxiety.
- The other half feel that their anxiety is caused by pressures at work.
- 16% use alcohol to cope. The number is higher for those who are unemployed
The Anxiety Centre reports that:
- 18.1% of adults in the US are affected by an anxiety disorder.
- 30% of adults are estimated to have an anxiety disorder, but are unaware they have it, have been misdiagnosed, or don’t seek treatment for an anxiety disorder they know they have.
- 41% of employed individuals feel high levels of anxiety from their workplace.
Living with anxiety doesn’t have to be so stressful. Finding healing for anxiety and co-occurring addiction is made easy through the residential treatment programs at Avalon Malibu. Our stunning estate on the coastline of California’s iconic Malibu beach serves as the tranquil home for our trusted programs. For a confidential assessment and more information on our programs, call 1 888-958-7511.
