Risk factors - stress Flashcards
High levels of stress, particularly in the long-term, can make individuals more vulnerable to addiction.
Why do high levels of stress make individuals more vulnerable to addiction?
Addiction is a coping mechanism: Turning to behaviours and drugs provide a temporary relief from stress i.e. it relieves the individual’s negative emotional state.
How could stress explain why there are a higher number of addicts in urban overcrowded areas?
There are higher levels of stress in cities or areas with a high population – lack of space, high living costs etc.
However, cause and effect cannot be established.
It could be that addicts live in urban areas because of the availability of drugs.
Gelkopf et al. (2002)
THE SELF-MEDICATION MODEL
argued that individuals intentionally use drugs to treat and relieve certain psychological symptoms e.g. anxiety/stress
The choice of drug/behaviour depends on the specific effect desired, as different drugs have different effects.
Which psychological symptoms might gamblers be trying to alleviate?…depression associated with poverty perhaps?
The drug or activity may not actually alleviate the symptoms, it is simply perceived to do so.
Once the addiction is established, there may be failures of ego-control, resulting in an inability to control the impulse to self-medicate.
People exposed to severe stress are more vulnerable to addictions
Robins et al. (1974) interviewed US soldiers within a year of their return from the Vietnam War. Of these, almost ½ had used either opium or heroin during their tour of duty, with about 20% reporting that they had developed physical or psychological dependence for heroin at some point during their time in Vietnam.
Do stress levels actually decrease as a result of engaging in addictive behaviours?
For example, do smokers feel less stressed after smoking a cigarette?
The Paradox of Smoking:
Each cigarette has an acute (immediate) effect on stress because it relieves the withdrawal symptoms, thus temporarily relieving the stress and maintaining the behaviour, but the effects of nicotine soon wear off and stress levels rise again as cravings set in.
Therefore, in the long-term smoking will increase levels of stress, resulting in chronic stress (Parrott, 1998).
Smokers actually reported higher levels of stress than non-smokers.
High levels of stress don’t always result in addictive behaviour; there are mediating factors. Apart from resorting to addictive behaviours, how else do individuals manage high levels of stress and what does this therefore suggest?
Mediating factors may include a lot of social support or utilising other ways of coping, for example, exercising when stressed.
Therefore, it is possible that it is not the level of stress, but the ability to cope with it that predisposes someone to addiction.
Cause-effect issue
High stress levels may be linked to the likelihood of becoming addicted, but they could equally be a by-product of being addicted.
Addiction may prompt high levels of stress due to the problems it causes e.g. the personal (relationships with friends and family) and financial costs.
The relationship between stress and addiction appears to vary according to the type of addiction
The role of stress in drug addiction is fairly well established (Dawes et al., 2000).
However, there is less support for the role of stress in other forms of addiction.
Arevalo et al. (2008) interviewed 393 women from substance abuse programmes and found no association between stress and alcohol addiction.
