Is School Affecting Sobriety?

Furthering each person’s education is incredibly important, and whether a person is navigating the pressures of high school or pursuing a college degree, focusing on these academic pursuits is crucial for reaching personal goals. However, school may also be affecting sobriety, impacting a person’s perspectives or use of drugs or alcohol in various ways. Whether an individual is balancing their academic career with their established sobriety or is exploring how school may be affecting their sobriety in the first place, understanding the connection is crucial for staying sober while navigating academic stresses and goals.

Many personal and professional goals involve a degree of education, with school being an important part of achieving each person’s ambitions. Graduating high school, college, or attending a trade school can each be important to empower each person with the education and experience to pursue personal goals. However, these academic goals can also come with a large degree of stress, which can inform unhealthy coping strategies. Managing substance use and preventing school from affecting sobriety is paramount to seeing these goals through. 

Likewise, addiction can affect every facet of daily life, including a person’s academic career. For some, a dip in grades is common, while others may begin skipping classes, days, or assignments regularly. However, scholastic stresses may also affect sobriety, necessitating the development of dedicated strategies to manage and avoid substance use while furthering each person’s academic career. 

School and addictive substances can be closely intertwined. Each person will have unique experiences with these substances, even in an academic setting. While unfortunate, it can be impossible to completely avoid stress or opportunities to experiment with addictive substances, even while on an academic campus such as a high school or college. However, knowing the risks surrounding how school and the stresses therein may be affecting sobriety is necessary to create an effective plan to maintain sobriety. 

This is especially true for those already in recovery and returning to pursue personal and academic goals, as well as those whose use of drugs or alcohol is directly impacting their academic performance or mental health. However, how school may be affecting sobriety can be unique to each person, and exploring the stresses of school can help each person create the best approach to healing and treatment for a successful, sober academic carer. 

School may be affecting sobriety in various ways. There are many stresses associated with pursuing academic goals and navigating these stresses in sobriety can be incredibly challenging. Talking with professionals about the stresses of academic life can empower each person to explore potential treatment options while best tending to academic goals.

School is incredibly stressful. Not only may there be a deluge of assignments, expectations, tests, and deadlines that can be looming each week, but things like midterms, finals, social stresses, and more can all further add even more intense stress to daily life. Feelings of anxiety, depression, and being overwhelmed are all common among students pursuing academic goals at any level and are commonplace from high school through college and beyond. 

These feelings can become so common that many students may look for any way to placate such challenging emotions, including the use of drugs or alcohol to calm the mind and detach from the constant stress of scholastic expectations. Going through multiple years of academic rigor is taxing on a person’s mental health, and seeking any kind of stress relief is understandable. However, monitoring the use of drugs or alcohol, especially for underage students still in high school, is necessary to prevent further damage to a person’s emotional health as well as prevent these dangerous substances from impacting a person’s academic career. 

Those in school may have more opportunities to be exposed to addictive substances than many parents may realize. While many high schools and college campuses may have zero-tolerance policies for drug use and strict repercussions for those engaging with these illicit substances, these locations can still be wrought with drugs or alcohol. 

This is especially true on college campuses, where alcohol may be accepted due to the age of the students on campus, with many being able to purchase alcohol legally. However, this makes alcohol very accessible for any student, making experimenting with alcohol or drugs common. Drugs are also common across many campuses, with some illicit drugs even being specifically marketed to college students. Most commonly, this is the amphetamine Adderall, or a “study drug,” that can allegedly improve focus and help students stay up and focus on studying. However, this drug is intended for specific use in those living with attention-deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) and has many dangerous effects when used outside of a doctor’s prescription.

More specifically, these “study drugs” are still very addictive, and even those simply looking to achieve academic goals can be exposed to these drugs on campus. While some may turn to these drugs in an attempt to improve academic performance, they can easily have the opposite effect by not necessarily improving any academic performance or improving study skills while also developing into addiction. 

Peers that share a school or campus can be an incredibly powerful influence and may be affecting sobriety in several ways. For some, this peer pressure can be direct, with not only other students introducing or offering addictive substances but even encouraging its use to “fit in.” However, most peer pressure does not typically take such a direct route. Rather, an individual may find themselves in a situation where others are already engaging with drugs or alcohol and will feel compelled to experiment with the substances to fit in, even without being directly instructed to do so. 

For others, peer pressure can affect sobriety by normalizing the use of drugs or alcohol. Some campuses or academic communities may normalize the use of alcohol or drugs throughout their time as students, which can have a myriad of effects. An individual may begin to think of addictive substances as less dangerous than they really are, while others may compare their use to those who have normalized regular use of drugs or alcohol, creating unfair comparisons and neglecting how these substances may be negatively affecting them as an individual. 

Peer pressure can also be related to more negative social stresses and situations. While unfortunate, bullying, teasing, and feelings of social isolation from peers can be equally as powerful and are still commonplace across many different academic institutions. In some cases, these notions can even be embedded into entire academic cultures, such as in harmful hazing traditions in collegiate fraternity or sorority houses. Not only may an individual be a victim of these social challenges, but they may also be affecting sobriety. 

For some, turning to drugs or alcohol can be a way to attempt to better “fit in” with others or improve social status, while others may turn to these substances to cope with the intense emotional effects that traumatic experiences like bullying or hazing can cause. 

For those pursuing academic success, each of these situations can already present unique challenges, and an individual may not necessarily have established strategies to prevent these stresses from affecting sobriety. However, for those going to school and pursuing academic goals even after receiving addiction treatment, these situations can birth an array of new challenges. 

Triggering and high-risk situations can be common, and the stresses of the situation can cause urges and cravings that can be incredibly difficult to navigate. Certain social circles and individuals may also cause an individual to romanticize their past use of drugs or alcohol, further informing potential relapse that can comprise a person’s hard-earned recovery and sobriety. 

Sobriety takes constant effort to maintain, and it can be difficult to navigate these social pressures, challenges, and even curiosity while continuing to tend to the responsibilities of academic life. However, there are options for those pursuing their education to prevent these substances from affecting sobriety, with Hawaii Island Recovery’s effective rehab in Hawaii offering further support and treatment to empower each person to pursue their academic and personal goals beyond the classroom. 

Just as some social circles can introduce dangerous ideas that may be affecting sobriety, others may instead share a person’s dedication to sobriety. Being selective about social groups can be necessary when prioritizing sobriety and academic success. 

This is especially true for alumni of treatment programs who may be balancing their academic careers and sobriety. Using continued outpatient programs or staying in contact with sober peers and professionals met at Hawaii Island Recovery can empower each person to tend to social needs in a safe, supportive, and understanding setting. Having a solid support network of peers, even if they are not physically present, can empower each person to be selective about their social groups. 

Many campuses at both the high school and collegiate levels will have resources available for those challenged by the use of drugs or alcohol. For some, this can come in the form of guidance counselors or on-staff mental health professionals who may be able to provide emotional support while pointing an individual in the right direction to find treatment or additional at-home support while creating a safe and private environment. 

Other campuses may have dedicated areas to discuss the prevalence of drugs or alcohol on campus and are directly tied to finding treatment to overcome addiction through student services and on-campus support groups. This option can further introduce an individual to a social circle that shares in a person’s goals and beliefs to reinforce their sobriety. 

However, the ubiquity of addictive substances and their intense effects can always be incredibly difficult to overcome on one’s own. Additional and dedicated addiction recovery support may be necessary to challenge the effects of addiction while also prioritizing academic goals and success. Hawaii Island Recovery can always empower each person to create a plan that works for them or provide support and direction on how to best pursue sober success in each person’s local community. 

Addiction treatment is a personal journey, and no two journeys will be the same. Personalizing each step of recovery is paramount to focusing on personal goals and tending to academic obligations. Understanding the role of treatment and recovery and the options available can empower each student to make the best decision for their academic career, personal success, and sobriety. 

One of the major barriers for those who may be reluctant to pursue professional addiction treatment while in school is the impression that they would have to choose between their academics and their sobriety. However, a person’s academics and sobriety are already connected, and it is possible to pursue a sober future while still tending to scholastic goals. 

For some, this can come in the form of dedicated outpatient programs. Many outpatient programs have multiple options for times or days of the week available, with support groups and class schedules being able to coexist so that one never overtakes the other. Talking with Hawaii Island Recovery or local treatment options can empower each person to understand the various available options. 

Those pursuing treatment at Hawaii Island Recovery will also explore how they can best set and maintain effective boundaries with others. For some, this can be through practicing social skills and strategies to help navigate challenging situations. Others may create boundaries by adopting schedules practiced and lived at Hawaii Island Recovery for their own success outside of a dedicated recovery setting. 

Enacting effective boundaries with unhealthy social outlets can not only mitigate some stresses or urges to engage with drugs or alcohol but can also further prioritize academic studies, making effectively practicing maintaining these boundaries necessary. 

Self-care is a core part of every recovery journey, as well as an essential strategy in preventing the development of addiction in the first place. Practicing self-care through engaging in hobbies, proper dieting, maintaining sleep schedules and hygiene routines, and more can all go a long way in improving mental and emotional health and resilience. 

Using on-campus resources like clubs that share interests or engaging in personal self-care outlets can all be paramount to prevent the stresses of academic life from affecting sobriety. Hawaii Island Recovery is instrumental in helping each person explore personal interests and potential self-care routines and helping each person transition to life outside of the treatment facility while still practicing effective self-care in daily life. 

Education is important, both in a person’s academic ambitions as well as throughout the recovery journey. Treatment programs that emphasize the importance of family education can be instrumental in sustaining sober change. Educated families can not only challenge preconceived notions or stigmas surrounding addiction and substance use but can also provide the best support outside of a dedicated treatment facility. This kind of educated support is crucial while navigating academic goals and preventing the use of drugs or alcohol from affecting sobriety. 

It is completely normal to feel stressed throughout each person’s academic journey. The constant tests, essays, assignments, and pressure to succeed across multiple classes and subjects is intense, especially if an individual feels compared not just against a letter grade, but even against peers throughout each step of their academic journey. Feeling anxious in the face of tests and expectations is completely normal. 

These stresses can inform the unhealthy or unsafe use of drugs or alcohol, and identifying when such anxieties are beginning to impact a person’s mental health negatively or affecting sobriety is paramount. However, there is always help available to help each person balance their school stresses with their continued sobriety. Combining education about addiction, on-campus support, and the support of professional treatment programs like those at Hawaii Island Recovery can all inform the best approach to a sustainable sobriety and fulfilling academic career. 

School can bring many stresses that can affect sobriety, from academic stresses to social challenges and situations. Managing the use of drugs and alcohol is paramount to pursuing academic goals, with Hawaii Island Recovery’s effective rehab in Hawaii being available to help you today. We understand the unique challenges that scholastic stresses can bring and are committed to long-term, transformative approaches to daily life. Your journey with recovery does not end at the doors of the facility, and we are prepared to help you establish the strategies and community to further your own sober and academic goals in daily life. For more information on how we can help you or your loved one, call us today at (866) 390-5070.