What’s red, achy, hot to the touch, and totally silent at the same time? If you guessed inflammation, you’re 100% correct. But if you’re in recovery from substances, how does inflammation come into the picture?
Let’s find out.
What Is Inflammation?
Simply put, inflammation is your immune system’s way of saying: “Hi, I’m responding to something that’s irritating me.” The National Library of Medicine (NIH) explains that inflammation looks like an injury swelling up, turning red, getting hot, or starting to hurt. You’ve been inflamed before when a splinter bothered your finger or foot, or when an ear piercing got temporarily infected.
Inflammation has a bad rap, but it’s actually a crucial immune system function. It releases inflammatory mediators into the blood, substances that increase blood flow to help your body heal and fight off infections. A common example of this is when you get a cold, inflammation may swell up your mucus membranes—making your nose stuffy—but causing more liquid to come out, and the virus with it.
We can experience three types of inflammation: The visible kind, the invisible kind, and the silent kind.
- Visible inflammation manifests as heat, redness, swelling, and pain.
- Invisible inflammation can mean you lose full or partial function of an area. For example, you may have an inflamed joint that prevents smooth movement, or a nasty case of bronchitis that makes it hard to breathe.
- Silent inflammation doesn’t cause any symptoms.
Any of these types can change or develop into serious versions of inflammation that cause fever, exhaustion, changes in your blood, and—in the most severe cases—sepsis, or blood poisoning.
When inflammation becomes chronic or too intense, it can mean you have an autoimmune disease (where the body attacks its own cells by mistake), like:
- Rheumatoid arthritis: Permanent joint inflammation
- Psoriasis: A common disease that causes itchy, red, or flaky skin and rashes
- Inflammatory bowel disease (IBS): This includes Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis
Certain types of intense inflammation can go beyond autoimmune disorders, affecting your decisions and daily life in ways you may not expect, especially if you’re in recovery treatment for SUD.
What Types of Inflammation Lead to Substance Use?
Currently, there’s no strong evidence to support that any one type of inflammation leads to substance use. In fact, a study published recently in Neuropsychopharmacology explained that people with compulsive disorder (this includes SUD) have more brain-area inflammation than others. This lends to the idea that people with SUD struggle so much to change their habits precisely because those habits have become deeply ingrained in the brain, and, therefore, automatic.
So the researchers hypothesized that increasing brain inflammation in rats would make their habits more ingrained and harder to quit. But they were wrong. The rats they tested became more thoughtful and conscious of their actions after their brain area became more inflamed.
The findings are interesting because, for decades now, we’ve known that SUD is beyond people’s control (your brain is rewired to use substances that harm you). But the study unveiled an idea that SUD may be less about losing control and more about exercising excessive control, although this doesn’t change SUD’s status as a disease.
The point is: SUD is not a choice.
But the SUD treatment may become more effective due to research like this. It may change how anti-inflammatory medications, brain health, and broader lifestyle changes help enrich treatment.
Do Substances Worsen Inflammation?
It’s a good question. Yes, the NIH confirms that substance misuse can lead to inflammation. When you consume substances habitually, they can trigger the release of those same blood-flow-increasing substances involved in immune responses. Over time, if those mediators are constantly released outside of their intended purpose, it can cause neural dysfunction with lasting negative consequences.
If you use substances but you’re not in treatment or suffering from diagnosed SUD, you may still need help reducing your use, especially if you’re noticing signs of chronic inflammation:
- Stomach and chest pain
- Fatigue, insomnia, or other sleep issues
- Fever, joint pain, or joint stiffness
- Mouth sores or skin rashes
- GI issues and/or weight fluctuations
- Depression or anxiety
If you’re noticing these symptoms, it’s best to speak with a doctor and explore the connection between your substance use and how you’re feeling on a daily basis.
Enter Recovery For Substance Use Disorder in Pennsylvania
Whether you struggle with substance-induced inflammation or you feel you have to lean on substances to cope with a chronic inflammatory illness, St. Joseph Institute can offer guidance for you and your loved ones.
Through residential treatment in Port Matilda or outpatient services based in Wexford, you can start to take more control of your body and brain health with us. You can also contact us to explore treatment costs in Pennsylvania and how St. Joseph Recovery Center in Wexford, PA, can help you plan for treatment.
