There are times when it makes sense to take advantage of a substitute. For example, if you are coaching a team and your players are getting tired, the opportunity to send in substitutes can refresh your overall efforts to win the game. If you are trying to watch your sugar intake, you might consider a sugar substitute in recipes (though you want to be careful about this). And when you are shopping, substituting the generic product for the name-brand product can save you money without lowering the quality of what you have purchased.
There are other situations, however, in which making a substitution is a bad idea. One of those situations is when you are in recovery from a substance use disorder. When you are in recovery, you should avoid developing substitute addictions—and that can require vigilance. Substitute addictions have a way of sneaking up on people in recovery, and when they do, they can pave the way to a relapse.
Let’s take a look at several substitute addictions so that you know what to watch out for along your own recovery journey.
Gambling Can Become a Substitute Addiction
A person in recovery often misses the rush that accompanied taking drugs, and so they seek out another way to access those feelings of excitement. Often, that means taking up gambling—which a person might do without even consciously realizing they are seeking a new kind of high. The risk and potential rewards can be a potent combination, leading to the types of emotions and sensations that a person used to experience from drugs before they sought out treatment.
But gambling can become a problem in a great big hurry. It can undermine your finances in catastrophic ways, of course, and it can also damage your relationships and upend your recovery. Your best bet? If you are in recovery, you should leave the gambling to others.
Work Can Become a Substitute Addiction
Most people realize that gambling has the potential to lead to bad outcomes. As a rule, however, most people probably do not think of working hard as a problem. But the fact is that work can become a substitute addiction.
What are the signs? If you are always the first person at the job and the last person to leave, you might be developing an issue. If you always work through your weekends or find yourself feeling anxious anytime you are not at work, a substitute addiction may be in play. If you never take vacations—or even lunch breaks—things are probably headed in the wrong direction.
We do not mean to suggest that you should avoid putting in your best effort at work—especially if you have work-related goals that you can once again pursue now that you are in recovery. But burnout is a reality for many, many people, and for a person in recovery from a substance use disorder, that reality is a stop on the road to relapse.
Exercise Can Become a Substitute Addiction
In this blog, we frequently emphasize that regular exercise can be an essential part of your recovery routines. In fact, we wrote about it quite recently. After all, exercise supports your physical health and your mental health—and by extension, your recovery. As a result, exercise has a lot of upsides in recovery and few downsides.
Few downsides, that is, unless exercise changes from a healthy habit to a substitute addiction. How can you tell if that is happening? One sign might be finding yourself working out several times a day or more strenuously than is safe for your current fitness level. Another indicator of a problem is if you start skipping out on social—or even work—obligations in favor of working out. Indeed, that pattern of behavior might well replicate your behavior when you were using substances—and avoiding other responsibilities to do so.
Binge Eating Can Become a Substitute Addiction
Binge eating can sneak up on you. You might not even realize that is what you are doing at first. An unusually large meal might seem like an outlier to you—an indication that you were unusually hungry and nothing more. But if you find yourself eating large amounts of food regularly, eating even if you are not hungry, eating until you are uncomfortably full, eating unusually fast, or feeling as though you are not in full control of your eating behaviors, a problem has likely developed.
It is a short step from a substitute addiction centered around binge eating and a return to the behaviors that define a substance use disorder. Additionally, binge eating can have serious health consequences even if it does not lead to a relapse.
What to Do If You Develop a Substitute Addiction
Each of the potential substitute addictions we have identified above (and other like them) can lead to real problems. That is why as soon as you realize you might be developing an issue, you should talk to your doctor or therapist. Nipping a substitute addiction in the bud is important, and your physical and mental health professionals can help.
There Is No Substitute for Effective Treatment
At The Farley Center—located in Williamsburg, Virginia—we help individuals overcome substance use disorders and co-occurring mental health disorders. We’re always ready to help.
