Experiencing and Overcoming Loneliness with Addictions

Loneliness and addiction often coincide, creating the illusion for most addicts that no one shares their pain. In fact, loneliness is actually one of the common threads that unites addicts in recovery. After discussing how sad and lonely I felt while drinking, I bonded with more people in recovery from addictions than any other time. Overcoming loneliness in addiction is possible.

I've noticed that, for me, the relationship between loneliness and addiction is cyclical. After a while, I don't know which condition caused the other. While feelings of sadness, depression, and loneliness are rampant when fighting an addiction, they can also be present in recovery. For this reason, it's important to develop skills for managing loneliness in addiction recovery.

The Connection Between Loneliness and Addiction

A recent TED Talk caught my attention last week with the title Everything You Think You Know About Addiction is Wrong. Johann Hari, author of the book Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, shared some revolutionary insights into addiction based on Vietnam War veterans and a study conducted by a man named Bruce Alexander. The bottom line was that a person's environment has more to do with their addiction than the addictive properties of the drugs themselves. Experiments showed that when rats were isolated and lonely, they almost always overdosed on heroin as opposed to the rats placed in a stimulating environment with toys and food almost never used heroin.

This study sheds a new light on the condition of addiction and shows a strong correlation that implies loneliness and isolation may be more that likely the cause of addiction rather than an effect. Presuming this assertion is correct, it reinforces the necessity of mitigating loneliness during periods of sobriety.

Replacing Loneliness with Fellowship

Initially, I didn't seek help for my drinking, but I sought it for depression because the loneliness become too much to bear. Early in my recovery, I was diagnosed as a suicide risk with a substance abuse disorder at which point I was sent to a rehabilitation center. I remember one day, in particular, that I was exceptionally depressed and desperately wanted to return to my room for a nap. I pleaded with my counselor to let me take a nap instead of going on the group walk I had signed up for that afternoon. He asked me a few probing questions and then strongly suggested that I go on the walk, justifying his decision by saying that the last thing I should be doing is isolating. At the time, I didn't understand how walking could possibly help me feel better. Just a few short minutes into the walk I began to feel energized and quickly lost my craving for alcohol.

By doing this, my counselor showed me how social connections are crucial to my sobriety: physically, mentally, and emotionally. For the next several days, I made a list of possible actions to take when craving a drink and feeling lonely:

• Call a friend or family member, ideally someone who is also in recovery.
• Take a walk or exercise.
• Go to a meeting for an addiction recovery program.
• Follow my daily schedule no matter how I feel.

What tools help you overcome loneliness?

Creative Commons photo attribution to lagiovanna2006.

You can find Becky on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and her website.