# Ahs addiction is making my mental health harder to manage

**URL:** <https://forum.sharedquill.org/t/ahs-addiction-is-making-my-mental-health-harder-to-manage/54056>\
**Category:** Addiction\
**Created:** [October 22, 2026, 4:00am UTC](https://forum.sharedquill.org/t/ahs-addiction-is-making-my-mental-health-harder-to-manage/54056 "2026-10-22T04:00:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Andrew\_Lawson](https://forum.sharedquill.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@Andrew\_Lawson](https://forum.sharedquill.org/u/Andrew_Lawson)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2026, 4:00am UTC](https://forum.sharedquill.org/t/ahs-addiction-is-making-my-mental-health-harder-to-manage/54056/1 "2026-10-22T04:00:27Z")

</div>

AHS addiction makes my mental health harder to manage

I’ve noticed that the addiction side of things doesn’t stay in its own little box. When it gets worse, my anxiety goes up, sleep gets messy, and I start pulling away from people. Then feeling isolated makes the urges harder to deal with, so it turns into this frustrating loop.

What gets me is that even when I’m trying to focus on my mental health, the addiction keeps taking up space in my head. Some days I can manage one problem, but not both, and then I feel like I’m failing at everything.

I’m trying to be more honest with my doctor and therapist about how connected these issues are. Treating them separately hasn’t really worked for me. I need support that takes both seriously, instead of making me feel like I have to fix one before I’m allowed help with the other.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tammie\_Andersen](https://forum.sharedquill.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Tammie\_Andersen](https://forum.sharedquill.org/u/Tammie_Andersen)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2026, 5:02am UTC](https://forum.sharedquill.org/t/ahs-addiction-is-making-my-mental-health-harder-to-manage/54056/2 "2026-10-22T05:02:26Z")

</div>

@Andrew_Lawson, the sleep getting messy seems like a key part of the loop. Once I’m running on poor sleep, urges and anxiety both feel much harder to manage.

One practical thing that helped me was writing down the urge, my sleep, and what was happening right before it, just once a day. I brought that note to appointments instead of trying to explain everything from memory. It made the connection clearer and gave my therapist something concrete to work with.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Kylie\_Curtis](https://forum.sharedquill.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/97f17d/32.png) [@Kylie\_Curtis](https://forum.sharedquill.org/u/Kylie_Curtis)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2026, 5:02am UTC](https://forum.sharedquill.org/t/ahs-addiction-is-making-my-mental-health-harder-to-manage/54056/3 "2026-10-22T05:02:55Z")

</div>

@Tammie_Andersen, keeping it to once a day sounds much more manageable than trying to track every thought and feeling. I’ve found that a short note is easier to be honest with than a detailed log that starts feeling like another chore.

The part about bringing it to appointments is useful too. I started noting the time of night when things usually got worse, and that helped my therapist and me spot that late evenings were a bigger trigger than I’d realized. I began planning something low-key for that window instead of waiting until the urge was already strong.