A Safe Place To Start A New Journey.
Constant anxiety is one of those things that’s really hard to understand unless you’ve lived with it. When your mind and body never seem to settle down, finding something that finally gives you a little relief can feel like a game changer.
For some people, that’s alcohol. For others, it’s a benzodiazepine that was originally prescribed for anxiety. And at first, it may help. The problem is that over time, the thing you’ve been using to calm your anxiety can start making it worse. At that point, figuring out what’s anxiety and what’s related to substance use can get really confusing.
You don’t have to untangle all of that before you ask for help. At New Leaf, the same clinical team looks at both the anxiety and the substance use, so you aren’t dealing with one while the other gets pushed aside. Anxiety is one of the mental health conditions treated here, along with depression, bipolar disorder, OCD, and PTSD.
Medical detox, psychiatric care, and residential treatment are all available at the same location in Laguna Niguel. If PHP, IOP, or sober living makes sense after that, the team can help arrange those services before you leave.
When something makes your anxiety quiet down, of course you’d reach for it again. But as alcohol or benzodiazepines wear off, anxiety can come back stronger. Over time, you may also need more to get the same relief. That’s how something you started using to manage anxiety can become part of what keeps it going.
Alcohol may calm you down at first, but hours later, anxiety can come roaring back. Sometimes that means waking up anxious in the middle of the night. Sometimes it’s that awful morning anxiety that makes you want a drink earlier than usual.
And once you realize another drink makes that feeling settle down again, it’s easy to see how the cycle can keep going.
Benzodiazepines are complicated because they may have been prescribed for the anxiety you’re struggling with. You can take them exactly as prescribed and still develop physical dependence, which is different from addiction.
If your body has become dependent, stopping can cause severe anxiety that may feel worse than what you had before. That can make it seem like the medication is the only thing keeping you functional when some of what you’re feeling may be withdrawal.
Benzodiazepine withdrawal can be dangerous and, in severe cases, fatal without medical supervision. Do not stop abruptly on your own. If you’re experiencing severe withdrawal symptoms, seek emergency medical care. If anxiety becomes overwhelming or you’re worried you may hurt yourself, call or text 988.
When anxiety and substance use have been tangled up for a while, figuring out which came first can feel like a chicken-or-the-egg situation. Were you drinking or taking medication because you were anxious, or are you anxious because of what you’ve been using? Sometimes, the answer is both.
Substance-induced anxiety disorder is a recognized condition where anxiety develops as a result of substance use, medication, or withdrawal. Other people have an anxiety disorder that was there before the substance use and still needs treatment in its own right. Both are real, but knowing which one you’re dealing with can affect what kind of treatment makes sense.
The tricky part is that withdrawal anxiety can feel a whole lot like the anxiety you were trying to escape in the first place. That’s why it may take some time after you’re medically stable to get a clearer picture of what your baseline anxiety actually looks like.
At New Leaf, psychiatric assessment and psychological testing are available on site. The goal isn’t to slap a diagnosis on you the day you arrive. It’s to give the clinical team time to see what’s happening as you stabilize, so they can better understand what needs attention after the withdrawal starts to settle.
New Leaf Detox accepts all PPO plans, which can cover up to 100% of treatment costs. Contact our team today for a free, confidential verification of your benefits.
One of the really tricky things about using alcohol or medication for anxiety is that you may not feel like you’re chasing a high. You’re chasing a sense of equilibrium. You just want your mind and body to settle down enough that you can feel comfortable in your own skin.
So when you stop and your anxiety suddenly gets much worse, it can feel like proof that you needed the substance all along. But that spike in anxiety may be part of withdrawal. Your body has gotten used to having the substance there, and it can take time to adjust when it isn’t.
That’s also one reason people go back. When you already struggle with anxiety, sitting through even more of it can feel unbearable, especially when you know exactly what would make it stop for a while.
Medical supervision gives you support through that period while your symptoms are monitored and managed. Anxiety can also continue beyond the acute withdrawal phase, so feeling anxious afterward doesn’t mean you’ve failed or that you’ll always feel this way. The clinical team may simply need more time to understand what belongs to withdrawal and what anxiety may need continued treatment.
If anxiety is already the reason you’ve been drinking or taking medication, the idea of going through withdrawal can be scary. The last thing you need is to feel like you have to get through detox before anyone will pay attention to the anxiety that got you here in the first place.
At New Leaf, you don’t have to. Psychiatric care happens alongside withdrawal management, so the team can pay attention to your anxiety while helping you get safely through detox.
While you’re there:
That means the anxiety doesn’t have to sit on the sidelines until detox is finished. The team can focus on both the anxiety and substance use from the beginning.
Getting through withdrawal is one part of treatment. But if anxiety was the reason you reached for alcohol or medication in the first place, you also need other ways to deal with it when it shows up.
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can help you look at the thoughts that keep anxiety going, including the belief that you need a substance to calm down or get through certain situations. You can start noticing those patterns and practicing different ways of responding to them.
When anxiety gets intense, sometimes you don’t care about understanding why you feel that way. You just need to know how to get through it without escaping it. Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) focuses partly on distress tolerance, which can be especially useful when alcohol or benzodiazepines have been filling that role.
Individual therapy gives you somewhere private to talk about what’s underneath the anxiety. Group therapy can help with another piece of it: realizing you’re not the only person whose anxiety has led them to cope in ways that eventually created more problems.
Anxiety and substance use can affect the whole household. Family therapy gives everyone room to talk about what’s been happening and work on patterns that may have developed around one person’s anxiety or substance use.
Things such as yoga therapy and mindfulness meditation can also support the work you’re doing in treatment. They don’t replace clinical care for anxiety, but they can help calm a dysregulated nervous system and give you another way to stay present when being in your own head feels uncomfortable.
The goal is to give you more ways to handle anxiety, so alcohol or medication doesn’t have to keep doing all the heavy lifting.
Calling a treatment center can feel like a pretty big deal, especially when you’re not even sure you need detox. You don’t have to have that figured out before you pick up the phone. The first call is partly about helping you understand what makes sense from here.
Here’s what happens:
If you do come in, bring a photo ID and insurance card, along with any prescriptions in their original bottles.
You don’t have to know whether detox is right for you before you call. That’s part of what the conversation is for. If New Leaf isn’t the right place to start, they’d rather tell you that than bring you into a level of care you don’t need.
Maybe you never thought of yourself as someone who would need addiction treatment. You were anxious, you were prescribed something that helped, and you took it the way you were supposed to. Or maybe alcohol slowly became the thing you relied on to make anxiety easier to live with. There’s nothing shameful about how you got here, and you’re far from the only person this has happened to.
You don’t need to label yourself before you ask for help.
New Leaf Detox and Treatment is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week in Laguna Niguel for adults 18 and older. Treatment is available to people of all genders, including LGBTQ+ clients and veterans. Insurance verification is free and doesn’t commit you to treatment.
And if detox isn’t actually the right place for you to start, New Leaf would rather tell you that on the phone. The first step can simply be figuring out what kind of help makes sense for what you’re dealing with.
Yes. At New Leaf, psychiatric care happens alongside withdrawal management, so anxiety and substance use can both be addressed while you stabilize.
It may be both. Alcohol can temporarily relieve anxiety while also contributing to it. After you’re medically stable, the clinical team can get a clearer picture of what’s going on.
Yes, it can be. Benzodiazepine withdrawal can be dangerous without medical supervision. Don’t stop abruptly on your own. If you’re in immediate danger, seek emergency care. If you’re in emotional crisis, call or text 988.
Not necessarily. Physical dependence can develop even when you take a benzodiazepine exactly as prescribed. Dependence and addiction aren’t the same thing.
Anxiety can increase during withdrawal and may continue after the acute phase. Psychiatric care can help the team understand what may be withdrawal-related and what needs continued treatment.
It depends on your plan. Coverage can vary based on your carrier and benefits. New Leaf can verify your insurance for free and explain what your plan covers.
 | Authored by: Josh Hamburg Meet Josh Hamburg: Supporting Recovery at New Leaf Detox Josh graduated from University of California, San Diego Extension in 2015 with a Certificate in Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counseling. He graduated from Saddleback College in 2016 with an Associates of Arts in Psychology. He received a Bachelors of Arts in Psychology at California State University, Fullerton in 2020. |
