When it comes to substance abuse, many people forget that addiction impacts every part of your life and the lives of those around you. In all the different ways in which substance abuse has a negative impact, you will find overlapping impacts that cause secondary and tertiary problems.
Learning how substance abuse impacts every part of your life is important because it will help you notice the spread of addiction in yourself or others.
How Substance Abuse Impacts Family Life and Relationships
Substance abuse has a detrimental impact on family life and relationships. As you start to become addicted, you are more likely to isolate yourself and pull away from friends and family. This can cause hurt and confusion.
On top of that, substance abuse makes it such that you lie about your activities or hide them. Those who struggle with addiction might think they are being clever or that they are succeeding in hiding their activities, but spouses, parents, and close friends often see through the lies or deceit. This places a stronger strain on relationships.
How Substance Abuse Impacts Work/School
As you continue to develop an addiction, substance abuse will have a negative impact on work or school performance. When substances become the most important part of your life, the cravings will be strong enough that you end up spending most of your time:
- Getting more drugs
- Being high or intoxicated
- Recovering from drugs
This means you may or may not realize that these three things are causing you to be late or absent from work/school, bringing down your performance or hurting your grades. Even if you do realize it, cravings are strong enough that you won’t be able to stop, no matter how hard you try.
How Substance Abuse Impacts Social Life
Substance abuse impacts your social life because of the aforementioned. For starters, as you become fixated on getting drugs, being high, and recovering, you will start to pull away from other activities, including social activities.
Friends and colleagues will begin to notice that you are not participating anymore or that you are often late.
This can place a strain on your relationships, especially where lies and deceit are involved.
Consider this:
Leena has developed an addiction to painkillers. She used to play in a community softball team, and she is part of a mom group in her neighborhood where she and other mothers get together for morning walks and take turns babysitting in the afternoons so each mother gets some time to herself.
When Leena first started taking painkillers, she would oversleep because she was high or recovering from being high. She performed poorly at her softball practices because she wasn’t focused or was high. Other team members noticed she was “acting strangely.” Soon, they weren’t comfortable with her, and combined with her increased absences and tardiness, she was asked to leave the team.
As for her mom group, Leena began missing a lot of the morning walks. When she was there, she was groggy. The other mothers would see her sneaking pills and no longer felt confident leaving their children with her. This meant Leena had to care for her child on her own, but soon the other mothers worried that Leena couldn’t do that either.
How Substance Abuse Impacts Finances
Substance abuse has a detrimental impact on finances because the more you struggle with addiction, the more money you are going to spend on drugs and alcohol. With severe addictions, you might know that your money is meant for something else, like food or bills, but you will spend it on drugs or alcohol despite that.
This has serious problems down the line that can lead to things like:
- Having utilities shut down for lack of payment
- Not being able to pay a rent or mortgage and becoming homeless
Secondarily, there are potential financial consequences of getting into legal trouble. When you deal with addiction, you might get arrested for driving under the influence, which can cost thousands of dollars in fines in addition to potential jail time.
How Substance Abuse Impacts Health
Substance abuse impacts your mental and physical health, too. The longer you struggle with addiction, the more likely you are to develop secondary mental health issues like depression or anxiety, as well as physical health problems like obesity, eating disorders, malnutrition, hormonal imbalances, and more.
Getting Help for Substance Abuse
If you are struggling with addiction, you get help at the best drug rehab centers on the East Coast. Providence Treatment Center specializes in helping professionals get the resources they need for long-term recovery. Our team will work with you to design an outpatient program that helps you overcome all of the impacts that substance abuse has had.
With time, coping skills can help you improve your mental health. Family therapy can help rebuild the relationship impact of substance abuse. Nutritional classes can improve your physical well-being. Life Skills can improve financial consequences, too.
Call our team today to learn more about how substance abuse impacts your life and how we can help you today.
