Have you wondered if your social life is hurting your treatment plans? You may be socializing with people who are detrimental to your recovery, or you may not be socializing at all, which can be equally as bad. Whether from stigma, social anxiety, or some other socially driven reason, some individuals may feel hesitant to find the recovery help they need. Despite the difficulties and anxiety you may face, learning about responsive treatment options can help you find the motivation for a positive and bright future.
Humans today live in a socially driven world. The average individual may spend 2 to 3 hours a day on social media, and the level of technology and online connectivity continues to rise, thus allowing people to be more socially active than ever before.
Many people thrive and find positive advancements when engaging in social events or driving up social media follower numbers. However, sometimes the demand of living in a socially driven world can cause people to form habits or develop mental illnesses that impede how the brain reacts and measures social behaviors. Many social-functioning-related mental health disorders, such as social anxiety and substance use disorder, affect cognitive function.
Humans are social creatures by nature and, no matter how introverted or socially anxious you are, social interaction is necessary for normal functioning. Allowing social anxiety to keep you from experiencing normal social interactions can harm your rational decision-making skills. The way you engage socially with the world may be harming your treatment plans. An unhealthy social life can prevent you from seeking treatment for addiction or put your post-treatment sobriety at risk.
Anxiety stems from distress, uneasy feelings, fear, and worry. Being anxious is your brain's way of reacting to unfamiliar and stressful scenarios. Having anxiety is a normal reaction to certain levels, as your brain releases stress hormones. However, when you struggle with an anxiety disorder, stress hormones flood your brain with additional adrenaline and cortisol. Typically, these hormones help you enhance your senses and increase your reflexes until the distress or danger is gone, but when individual struggles with anxiety disorder, the hormones do not go away when the threat is gone. Instead, these hormones influence your brain to create more stress hormones, thus causing you to become overwhelmed and have an increased level of anxiety, leading to anxiety or even panic attacks.
Brain maps are physical and visual images showing how the brain functions and identifies patterns of mental weaknesses and strengths. They are used to understand various mental disorders. For example, a brain map called Quantitative Electroencephalography shows images of overactive brain waves when an individual suffers from enhanced anxiety levels. So when an individual suffers from mental health disorders like anxiety, an individual is more inclined to be socially hesitant and hyperactive to dangerous situations and stress because of the overactive brain waves and increased stress hormones.
Having a mental health disorder like social anxiety can affect your communication with others. Many individuals worldwide struggle with anxiety disorders, and addiction recovery facilities know how overwhelming and debilitating the struggle is.
Those who struggle with anxiety disorders feel threatened more often. Even in non-threatening situations, your brain starts encouraging irrational behavior when under such stress of an anxiety disorder. The connection to rational thinking is harder to make when the hormones are higher than average. For example, when an individual feels threatened in a social environment and they suffer from an anxiety disorder, the levels of anxiety stress hormones start to increase. This feeling causes their brain to ignite social hesitancy leading to impulsive behaviors, isolation, lack of emotional regulation, and poor cognitive reasoning abilities.
Luckily, because technology continues to advance responsive treatment options using brain maps, professionals can learn more about how the brain stimulates and responds to identify and strengthen the areas of brain function related to social interaction.
When a professional can further progress the individual's ability to manage anxiety symptoms with customized neuro-feedback, they can help the individual calm certain areas of the brain that have too much activity and increase overall performance. Using this in addiction recovery helps clients who struggle with social hesitancy and anxiety identify core challenges in life, relationships, and addiction. The identification is used to understand social indifference and address it in professional and social environments. There are various responsive treatment options to address your specific situation and help you overcome social anxiety and substance use disorder.
We know it is scary to build a social relationship or take that first step forward to recovery, but learning about how anxiety can make you more hesitant can help your recovery goals to create a positive and healthy future. NorthStar Transitions offers responsive treatment to help improve your social outlook while personalizing your recovery plan. We want to guide you towards a healthier future and reconnect your positive cognitive functionality. Our treatment center is an advanced option providing you with opportunities to overcome challenges of substance use with evidence-based treatments to help you recover a healthy, substance-free life. To learn more or see if your social life is stopping your treatment plans, reach out to our compassionate team because we care about you and your recovery progress. You can contact NorthStar Transitions today for more information and see how our treatment can improve your social outlook and your lifestyle at (303) 558-6400.
