Do you know someone for whom everything seems to go right all of the time? A person for whom everything seems to come easily—great grades (and maybe a spot on the student council or in the starting lineup), great job (and maybe plenty of public accolades or steady promotions), and a great family (and maybe a gaggle of kids whose accomplishments seem mighty impressive in their own right). The kind of person for whom you feel both admiration and a certain amount of jealousy.
Heck, maybe you yourself are that person—the one everyone admires and kind of dislikes in equal measure.
In any event, we tend to think of the high achiever as a person who seldom, if ever, struggles. But of course, everyone struggles. And it turns out that high achievers often struggle mightily. Those struggles can lead to the use of drugs or alcohol—leading in turn to the development of a substance use disorder.
In fact, the journey to drugs or alcohol might start with a different addiction: an addiction to success.
High Achievement Can Mean High Levels of Pressure
In many cases, high levels of achievement stem from high levels of expectation. This is not necessarily a bad thing. After all, you want to pursue worthy goals while doing your best. But sometimes the high expectations come to feel overwhelming—whether they are our own expectations for ourselves or have their origins in the demanding standards of our parents or others we have felt pressure to prove ourselves to.
It is all too easy for this constant pressure to lead to negative consequences that affect your physical and mental health alike. Maybe you become a workaholic (this drive to work more and more can also play the role of a substitute addiction for someone in recovery). Maybe your personal relationships start to suffer as you pursue more and more success. Maybe you start to deal with the exhaustion by turning to drugs that you think will help you keep your edge.
(Mis)using Drugs to Stay Sharp is Common—and Dangerous
If you are a sports fan, you are familiar with the idea of performance-enhancing drugs—illicit substances that athletes sometimes use to try to come back from an injury more quickly or to increase their strength more rapidly. The drugs can certainly support significant athletic accomplishment, but they are dangerous and therefore banned from every major sport. Using performance-enhancing drugs can even keep you out of your sport’s Hall of Fame, no matter how impressive your career numbers are.
The equivalent in non-sports arenas is the use of stimulants as a way to keep pushing to do more and more. And we are not just talking about the caffeine in your coffee, tea, soda, or energy drink.
Instead, some people desperate to keep going turn to drugs like Adderall—most commonly prescribed to those with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and also to those with sleep disorders like narcolepsy—to stay awake and to sharpen their focus. You can imagine a highly driven student, a striving employee looking to move up in the company, or even a harried parent who needs to squeeze a little more into each day finding the promise of a few more hours of productivity very tempting indeed.
But using a drug like Adderall in this way is not a magic bullet without consequences. Taking drugs in pursuit of your next achievement is likely to make that next achievement a negative one rather than a positive one. Developing a substance use disorder is certainly not the sort of achievement you are likely to add to your résumé.
Achievement—and Addiction—Might Run in the Family
High achievers often arise from families that have a tradition of exceptional accomplishments. A drive to achieve might be said to be a family trait. But achievement is not the only thing that can be characteristic of a family.
There may also be a family predilection to addiction.
In fact, David J. Linden, a professor of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University School Medicine, sees a correlation between the drive to achieve and susceptibility to addiction. He puts it this way:
“[T]he psychological profile of a compelling leader…is also that of the compulsive risk-taker, someone with a high degree of novelty-seeking behavior…[W]hat we seek in leaders is often the same kind of personality type…found in addicts…”
According to Linden, we should not be surprised to find that high achievers often find themselves developing a substance use disorder as a means to support their pursuit of excellence.
Let Us Help You Achieve—and Maintain—Sobriety
High achievers are often go-it-alone kind of people. But if you are struggling with a substance use disorder, your best move is to get help. It might be tempting to try to solve the problem on your own—gut it out and demonstrate to yourself and others that you can overcome anything—but it would be far better to go through detox and rehab at a recovery center that can help you get sober and then provide the support and resources you need to stay sober.
And here’s the thing: the team at Highland Hospital is made up of committed professionals who strive to provide you with the highest quality personalized care. You won’t find us resting on our laurels. Instead, your treatment will address your specific needs—including any co-occurring mental health disorders that may be contributing to your struggles with drugs or alcohol. And when your time in residential treatment comes to an end, we will continue to support your recovery journey via our commitment to a continuum of care.
So, don’t go it alone. If your quest for success has led to a substance use disorder, we are here to help you add sobriety to your list of accomplishments.
