How Depression, Anxiety, & Anger Relate to Alcoholism & Drug Addiction.

Dealing with Difficult Emotions

Emotions are the feelings that we experience every day
– happiness, sadness, relief, anger, joy, and fear. 
Many addicts often turn to their drug of choice to enhance their pleasant emotions
and cope or rather not cope with the painful ones. 

Once in recovery,
addicts find themselves out of practice in dealing with difficult emotions;
they may have trouble even naming the emotions they feel. 
Instead of identifying the feeling as an every day, “normal” emotion,
addicts often interpret it as a craving to drink or use.

Depression, anxiety, and anger are all natural,
and even healthy, reactions to life’s challenges. 
However, for alcoholics and addicts,
they are also a leading cause for relapse. 
Learning to deal with and manage these difficult emotions is one of the
key strategies to sustaining a long-term, satisfying recovery.

Managing Depression
 1.  Increase your awareness.

• Pay attention to mood changes.
• Own your feelings.
• Be alert to your body language.
• Label your avoidance.
• Watch for times when your confidence disappears.
• Look for activities that take great effort.
• Become aware of times when you have trouble concentrating or making decision.
• Ask for help.
  

 2.  Change your way of thinking about yourself and the world.
 3.  Use problem-solving techniques.
 4.  Change your activity level.
 5.  Make a plan.

• Become task-oriented.
• Stick with the plan, but stay flexible.
• Schedule activities in half-hour to one-hour increments.
• Don’t get too specific or too general.
• Plan for quantity, not quality.
• Pat yourself on the back.

 6.  Interact with others.
 7.  Be optimistic yet realistic. 

Breaking the Anxiety Cycle
Whether working with a therapist or on your own,
you can take steps to break the anxiety cycle by doing the following:

 1.  Increase your awareness of what’s causing your anxiety.

• Keep a journal.
• Write in your journal several times a day.
• Assess the control factor.     

 2.  Challenge and change negative thinking. 
Identify a mal-adaptive belief.  Challenge that belief.

 3.  Manage stress.

• Exercise.
• Practice relaxation techniques.
  
• Simplify your life.
• Take care of your body.
• Utilize your support system.
  
• Enjoy yourself!
• Ask for help.
  

Anger Management
The four major techniques that help manage anger are:
 1.  Change your thinking about the situation.

• Keep a journal.
  
• Write in your journal several times a day.
  
• Assess the control factor.

 2.  Look at the situation from the other person’s perspective.
 3.  Ask yourself if your thoughts are accurate,
find evidence as to if they are accurate or not.
4. Pause, think, feel, breathe, then behave.
Ask for help.

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