Loneliness; A Catalyst For Addiction

Addiction has now become a common phenomenon and challenge that is now becoming very prevalent especially amongst the adolescents and young adults.

That does not mean that the older populations are not engaging in addictive behaviour. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (2020), there are more new cases of addiction among young people than other age groups. For many people, risky behaviours that lead to drug abuse and addiction start during early adolescence. Most of these young ones do not progress in such activities, but the ones who do are often associated with one or more risk factors for addiction. 

Addiction

Addiction is a condition that results when a person takes substances or engages in activities for pleasurable reasons at the beginning but the continuous engagement can become compulsive and interfere with normal functionalities of the person.

It is when a person continues to engage in an activity that is pleasurable but cannot stop doing it, even to the detriment of their everyday functionalities such as work, hobbies, relationships, health, finances etc. (Desert Hope 2020). 

Addictive behaviour usually starts as a habit, but the persistence engagement then leads to addiction. 

To simply put it, addiction is when a person becomes enslaved to a habit. That means, such behaviour has become compulsive and uncontrollable. 

Addiction and Loneliness

Loneliness is a state of feeling of disconnectedness and isolation from others, this state of mind can cause people to feel unwanted, empty and alone. This state can also make it difficult for such individuals to form connections with other people.

From that definition of loneliness, it is obvious that loneliness is a feeling. It can be unconscious, and may be unrealistic and subjective, due to the fact that it is how an individual feels at a particular period of time even while such an individual could be among several others, such can still feel lonely and disconnected from the larger group. 

Every human is relational in nature; there is an innate desire in everyone to be connected to others. We all crave connection but when we struggle to meet our relational and social needs we can end up meeting those needs in dysfunctional ways.

This desire is ever present throughout different stages of one’s life. This connectivity is something we unconsciously or subconsciously crave for in order to meet our physiological needs, the need for survival according to Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs (Recovery Centers 2020). 

My engagement with many addicts has exposed me to the trauma of being lonely, I have learnt from experience that loneliness can lead to diverse psychological problems like depression, anxiety, panic, psychosis, delusions, hallucination, insomnia, irritability, agitation, restlessness, suicidal ideations and physical conditions like heart problems can also be triggered by loneliness.

An amazing thing about this challenge is that all the sufferers I have engaged were unaware that loneliness was the underlying trigger to their emotional or mental turmoil. Being lonely has a detrimental impact on one’s mental state and holistic well-being. 

In order to manage the feeling of loneliness, the sufferer may have taken up a habit to cope with that feeling but if this feeling persists over time and unresolved, the person can become dependent and preoccupied with such behaviour that they lose control over the habit. At this stage, the behaviour has become addictive.   

In order to avoid or escape feelings of disconnectedness, a person can take up activities that can later progresses and the person becomes dependent on the activity, the inability to engage or the discontinuation of the behaviour can lead to psychological or physiological disturbances in the sufferer, when this happens the individual’s coping habit can escalate into addiction.

A sufferer can be addicted to; alcohol, drugs (prescribed and/or illicit), tobacco, eating, sugar, coffee and chocolate, lactose and replacement food, gambling, sex, pornography, masturbation etc.

One of reasons why it is easy to be addicted to these substances and activities is because they can increasingly cause symptoms of intolerance. This means, the person who takes those substances or engages in those activities is over-stimulated to continue to increase their usage or engagement in order to meet or maintain their desired level of satisfaction which in most cases they cannot attain.   

People engage in addictive behaviour as an avoidance strategy (which I also call escapism) to deal with unpleasant and distressing thoughts and memories from traumatic past experiences that may have been untreated.

Period of loneliness which unsettles and stresses the mind has the potential to evoke those unpleasant memories and corresponding disturbing emotions that come with those memories. Examples of such unpleasant memories are abuses, grief from loss (loss of job, loved ones, loss of relationships), accident, divorce, physical health problems, rejection, rape, war etc. Therefore, addiction can sometimes be classified as a symptom of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). In circumstances like this, loneliness can be seen as a catalyst for the addiction.

Catalyst is anything that causes or accelerates a reaction, precipitates or energizes an event (Dictionary.Com 2020). However, in the context of the subject of discussion which is addiction, loneliness has a tendency to energies or evokes unpleasant symptoms from untreated psychological stress. And the addict in order to manage these disturbing thoughts and unpleasant emotional symptoms may use a maladaptive strategy; the progressive engagement in such strategy can lead to addiction.        

When addiction happens, the addict develops dependence and tolerance on the behaviour, he or she loses the ability to control the usage of either drugs or engagement in addictive behaviour even at the detriment of their health, relationships, work or other functionalities. What it means is that such a person prioritizes addiction over every other thing in their life. 

Loneliness is increasing, the rise of internet use and social media are partially to blame, and the implication of this is that addiction is predisposed to increase as well.

I wish to suggest to individuals who have the tendency to feel lonely to make more deliberate effort to connect with others. And if you struggle to connect with others, you can seek the help of a professional therapist who can help to identify reasons you have problems with connection and can help you to develop skills and techniques that can enhance connectivity. 

And for therapists working with people suffering addiction; during the period of exploration in therapy, you can explore with your clients issues around connectivity with others. Explore if your client is feeling lonely, unwanted or isolated. Strategically explore their thoughts and behaviour around being lonely; they may be using their addiction to avoid feelings of loneliness. Identification of this trigger may determine the interventions that will be effective in helping their recovery journey.