Serene Retreat's Approach To Social Anxiety and Substance Abuse

“We cannot escape fear. We can only transform it into a companion that accompanies us on all our exciting adventures.” - Susan Jeffers End Quote

(1888PressRelease) May 16, 2019 - How would you feel when you are in a threatening situation? What will you think at that moment? How will you react to the next?

Usually, people will experience fear or anxiety at that moment. These two terms sometimes can be applied interchangeable, but still, have the differences in between. Fear is an immediate reaction to the threat, whereas anxiety consists of apprehension and loss of self-control. We cannot avoid anxiety appears in our life. This is because it is a basic emotion for a human to adapt and survive in the environment. However, excessive anxiety might become a problem in life when someone tries to find an alternative solution themselves. To begin with, youngsters nowadays, who have social anxiety disorders find for an immediate and faster remedy which is drug abuse. Most of the patients who admit for drug rehab in Serene Retreat feel that this is the only way to get away from the actual problem. Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is highly comorbid with alcohol use disorders (AUDs) and cannabis dependence.

Among the affecting disorders, SAD appears to serve as a unique risk factor for the subsequent onset of cannabis and alcohol dependence. Somehow it becomes another add on an issue such as addictive behavior which has been on the rise for over a decade. The number of people who have SAD induced substance use disorder has been increased throughout and this is the easiest way to numb their pain.

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is one of the common mental health problems in the world however it becomes dangerous when a substance is induced. The wrong believes of curing by using substance usually due to the social influence or peer pressure. It is important to take note as it happens to other individuals, especially children, and adolescents. This is because it is
significantly affected by the individuals’ daily life functions, not only on their behaviors in the social situation but also on their cognition and affection.

The onset of SAD induced substance use disorder usually happened on youths and seldom develops after age 25. According to DSM-IV-TR, there are a series of criteria used to diagnose individuals who are facing SAD problems but it becomes difficult when they induce substance. However, the addictive behavior becomes worsens and there are differences between children and an adult in the symptoms of SAD induced substance use disorder due to the different developmental process of children and adults.

What are the causes of SAD induced substance use disorder? Are there nature problems or nurture problems? Some of the researchers found that there are genetic, biological and temperament influence on the SAD induced substance use disorder; whereas, some of the researchers found that parenting style is also one of the contributing components that affect the individuals to have SAD induced substance use disorder problems. There is no single answer to this question. This is because both nature and nurture development are correlated. Some of the SAD induced substance use disorder people might also develop another disorder due to failure to adapt to the environment such as bipolar, schizophrenia and other. Thus, we need to learn the necessary skills and adapt to the environment in order to survive.

How individuals interact with others also will influence how others react to individuals. SAD induced substance use disorder people usually use the wrong methods to interact with others (e.g., avoid to talk) and influence their healthy psychosocial development. It
is a vicious circle development. Thus, it is important to guide them to develop healthy social interaction with others. They need to recognize their anxiety, learn the social skills and cope with it rather than just rely on medications.

Good health is a great asset. According to World Health Organization [WHO] (2011), the meaning of health is not just based on the absence of the diseases, but also the state of physical, mental, and social well-being. Lately, Serene Retreat Addiction Rehabilitation and Treatment Centre has been treating those suffering from Social Anxiety Disorder-induced with substance use disorder. There is a primary and secondary treatment for this type of disorders. First, their addiction will be focused and treated until the client is stabilized until they undergo the second treatment for SAD. We also use an approach like Hypnotherapy which is a form of psychotherapy that aims to treat the underlying mental or behavioral condition, which in this case, is anxiety, by attempting to create a subconscious change in the patient in the form of new thoughts, attitudes, feelings, behaviors, responses, and reactions. There are also studies prove that the effectiveness of cognitive hypnotherapy (CH), hypnosis combined with cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), on depression, produced significantly larger changes in Beck Depression Inventory, Beck Anxiety Inventory, and Beck Hopelessness Scale. The result was very efficient as it is shown that the CH group produced 6%, 5%, and 8% greater reduction in depression, anxiety, and hopelessness, respectively, over and above the CBT group. Alladin (2012) found that a combination of hypnotherapy with cognitive behavior therapy offers a unified version of clinical practice that fits the assimilative model of integrated psychotherapy, which represents the best integrative psychotherapy approach for merging both theory and empirical findings.

Besides guiding the SAD induce substance patients to recognize their own problems, it is important to guide them to recognize their strengths as well to cope with their addiction behavior. Treatment is not just fixing what is broken; it is nurturing what is the best within us” (as cited in Compton, 2005). Recognize the individuals’ potentials is one of the encouragement methods to guide them to apply their own strengths into daily life so can develop as a healthy person in order to fulfill the “Good Life and Recover Together” for everyone.

Serene Retreat

Address: 30, Jalan Batai Barat, Bukit Damansara, 50490 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur
Phone: 014-687 2268
Email: enquiry ( @ ) sereneretreat dot com dot my

Website: https://sereneretreat.com.my

Map: https://goo.gl/maps/cKdE86vQZBvJrxHCA

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