The link between addiction, anxiety and depression has long been known. Essentially, if you have one, you are highly likely to have the others.  But what is emerging from neuroscience research is how intricately they are all connected and how the stress hormone cortisol can hard-wire the brain to make a person vulnerable to all three.Cortisol is one of the primary hormones released when we are anxious or stressed. Its job is to provide extra energy to deal with the stressor. It does this by partially shutting down certain systems, such as the digestive system and the immune system and flooding the body with glucose. Along, with adrenaline, cortisol is responsible for the body sesnsations we get when we experience fear, anxiety and stress – rapid heart rate, shallow breathing, chest pains, tingling in the arms and hands, dizziness and butterflies in our stomach. Although these feelings are uncomfortable, they are our body’s way of giving us the strength, focus, energy and numbness to pain in order to help us get out of life threatening situations. This is all well and good when we actually have the ability to deal with and take action to remove the stressor but what happens when we can’t? [Read more…]