What is the connection between addiction and mental health? It is a complex relationship. For some women, addiction and mental health problems develop independently, but in other women, there is a common risk factor or cause for both.
Women, in particular, are faced with higher risks of family and social stress, bigger risks of certain types of trauma like sexual assault or domestic violence, and higher rates of depression and anxiety disorders.
These risks can lead to addiction, particularly when women try to self-medicate or cope with drugs and alcohol. In other cases, addiction might be the starting point, and that addiction could put women in a situation where they are at a higher risk for assault or violence or more likely to develop depression or anxiety because of neurological changes brought about by substance abuse.
So, what is the connection between addiction and mental health? One can cause the other, both can develop independently of one another, and both can increase the severity of symptoms in the other.
What is the Connection Between Addiction and Mental Health for Women?
Studies indicate that there are many overlapping connections between addiction and mental health. Both mental health and addiction share similar root causes, and it can be difficult to determine which one comes first.
Regardless, they can both influence one another in a perpetual cycle that can make it difficult to get appropriate treatment.
For women, there are unique connections between addiction and mental health:
- Nearly nine percent of women between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five have an alcohol addiction
- Women have higher sensitivities to pain than men and are more likely to struggle with chronic pain and turn to prescription opioids to which they develop addictions
- Women are more incentivized to abuse methamphetamines or cocaine for weight loss
- Women are more likely to abuse methamphetamines to increase their energy at home so that they can maintain a job and provide for their families
- Women are more likely to abuse benzodiazepines and other anti-anxiety medications compared to men
- Women who receive prescriptions are more likely to abuse them at home, using them to self-medicate for underlying mental health disorders like depression or anxiety or to help with sleep
With so many genetic differences and hormonal differences between men and women, the connection between addiction and mental health is vast, and it comes down to several risk factors as well.
Risk Factors
Women face unique risk factors that increase mental health disorders and addiction.
- Mental Health Disorders: Women are more likely to struggle with eating disorders, anxiety disorders, depression, or PTSD compared to men
- Self-Medicating: Nearly fifty percent of women with depression or anxiety will develop an addiction because of self-medication
- Domestic Violence: One-third of women experience domestic violence at some point, which leads to a higher risk of poor mental health and subsequent addiction
- Discrimination: Women are more likely to face unique discrimination at home, in their communities, or at work, and this level of stress can be detrimental to mental health and lead to addiction
- Gender Roles: Women are more likely to struggle with pressure relating to gender roles, like the need to maintain a certain figure after having children or to balance full-time jobs and maintaining a home, which can lead to a higher risk of methamphetamine abuse or prescription drug abuse
- Family Stress: Women are more likely to develop addictions after highly stressful situations involving the family, including a divorce, child custody problems, or the death of a loved one
Given these connections between mental health and addiction in women, it’s important to get treatment for signs and symptoms of either a mental health condition or addiction, or both at the same time.
Improving Mental Health and Overcoming Addiction with Casa Serena
At Casa Serena, we specialize in providing women with a safe space for treating mental health and addiction. Our women’s mental health treatment center focuses on dialectical behavioral therapy, or DBT, as a way to help women recover from mental health disorders and address the root causes of addiction.
We know that for some women, the connection between addiction and mental health has to do with untreated trauma. That is why our women’s only treatment center provides a safe, secure place for female clients to receive trauma-informed care as part of their dual diagnosis treatment or part of an addiction recovery program.
Call us today to schedule your tour and learn more about our programs.
