How Does Addiction Impact One's Financial Stability?
Addiction is a disease that can take over your entire life and become your main reason for existence. It can impact your relationships, health, employment, and financial stability. The type of substance and severity of your addiction can contribute to how much effect it has on you.
Types of Addiction
Addiction is the compulsive, habitual, and uncontrollable urge to seek out and use your substance or activity of choice. This can include both digital addiction and substance use disorder (SUD). Addiction happens when, after the use of the substance, changes in your brain's reward system occur that cause an increase in dopamine release, which in turn makes your brain need to adjust how easily dopamine is released. This means that to feel the same euphoria you felt before, you have to increase the amount you use or the number of times you use, which is called tolerance.
Digital disorders include problematic gaming, internet use disorders, and social media disorder. Problematic gaming involves the overwhelming need to obtain and play your game of choice. Internet use disorder is the persistent urge to do various activities on the internet, such as excessive research, online dating, and online shopping. Finally, social media disorder is the obsessive desire to check, update, and manage various social media sites and apps.
SUD is defined by severity, classified by 11 criteria, including tolerance, cravings, and your inability to stop, even with numerous negative consequences. Substances include alcohol, nicotine, and illicit drugs. Nicotine and alcohol are more accessible to obtain than illicit drugs. Nicotine can be obtained in tobacco products such as cigarettes and chewing tobacco, electronic cigarette fluid, and various other ways. Alcohol and nicotine products can be picked up at local stores and bought when you are of a certain age. Illicit drugs are harder to come by and, at times, illegal. These drugs can include methamphetamines, cocaine, heroin, barbiturates, hallucinogens, and marijuana.
The uncontrollable need that comes from having to maintain these addictions can be costly, time-consuming, isolating, and life-altering. These addictions can take over every minute of your day, whether you are spending money on it, thinking about it, obtaining it, or using it. This leaves little room for other pursuits, like your career or people in your world. This can affect your relationships and financial stability.
Impact on Financial Stability
Addiction can affect your financial stability in a variety of ways. It encompasses every desire, and your main focus becomes thinking about your substance or activity of choice, obtaining it, and using it.
This means that this addictive substance or activity surrounds your life. As a result, you lose focus on your job, which means you can't perform your duties properly. If the situation continues long enough or worsens, you could lose your job altogether. Losing your job, in turn, means you lose your source of income and ability to pay the bills you need to, let alone the ability to supply your addiction.
The need to supply your addiction can make your other expenses take a back seat. You might not pay all the bills you need to. You are more concerned with paying for the internet to be able to continue your digital addiction or buying your substance of choice.
Not choosing to pay all the bills that need to be paid because you are funding your addiction means you can lose a lot. You can lose your home, car, apartment, and ability to buy groceries or other necessities.
Addiction can lead to other comorbidities that can have health repercussions. For example, it can lead to depression, anxiety, liver cirrhosis, cardiac and lung complications, dental problems, cancer, hepatitis, and HIV, to name a few. These other conditions can lead to costly medical expenses whether you seek treatment promptly, especially if you wait until these conditions worsen to the point of hospitalization.
Signs You May Need to Seek Help
Seeking help can be a tremendous battle, and you must come to terms with it. Looking for help can also seem daunting if you already have financial difficulties and now need to think about paying for treatment.
The moment you see that you need help can be different for everyone. Some people realize that they have lost all the people they care about. This can motivate them to want to get better and rebuild those relationships. For some, it is when they end up in the hospital and are told that if they do not stop, they will die. Others lose everything, including their family, home, car, job, and friends, and still do not see that they have a problem.
When you see that you have a problem and that the consequences of your addiction outweigh the euphoria you get from it, reach out to a treatment service. Don't worry about the cost or making plans at that moment. You don't want to lose the desire to get help because you are worried about other issues you can get help with once you reach out.
Addiction is a debilitating and all-consuming disease. It affects every aspect of your life, from financial stability to relationships to health. What you were abusing, and for how long, can impact the effect that your addiction has on you. You do not have to go it alone. Fortunately, compassionate and empathetic people are out there who want to help your start your recovery. At Next Level Recovery, we provide a personalized experience to ensure you get everything you need to thrive on your journey. We offer recovery companions who can accompany you throughout the recovery stages and provide various services to make the experience easier. For more information, email us at consult@nextlevelra.com.