Can Drugs and Stress Live in Your Scalp? Understanding the Connection

Stress, Drugs and Hair Follicles

Table of Contents

Hair loss and thinning isn’t just for people taking chemo drugs. Many people will suffer from hair growth issues due to their lifestyle. Can drugs and stress live in your scalp and how do they affect your ability to grow healthy hair?

Most cases of substance abuse and stress will cause certain types of hair loss and scalp damage. The problem is that substance use and stress will redirect energy and blood flow away from the hair and put it into telogen effluvium. Stress and drug use can also cause scalp tingling and people will start to pick at their scalp. This can lead to skin infections.

Reversing hair loss and thinning isn’t as easy as taking your vitamins. You need multiple parts of a comprehensive treatment plan to address symptoms, substance use and stress once and for all. Our program at Purpose Healing Center can help you get healthy hair.

Keep reading to learn more about how stress and substances affect skin and hair.

Get Effective Detox and Rehab Options at Purpose

Substance Abuse, Stress and Hair Loss: Is It Common?

Substance abuse and stress can cause many ailments. While many people focus on the long term effects on body organs, your scalp and hair are often affected. It’s one of the most obvious signs and symptoms that you might be struggling with a substance use issue or even PTSD.

Both substance abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder put the body on high alert, referred to as hypervigilance in PTSD. The bottom line is that stress diverts attention away from non-essential body systems, including your hair follicles.

The result is your hair health tanks. It often results in hair thinning or loss that leads to alopecia areata.

Hair Thinning and the Hair Growth Cycle

Substance use can cause hair loss and hair shedding but that’s not always the result. Instead stress can cause another issue: less healthy hair follicles. You knew that already. Most people know you can be drug tested through the hair follicles collected.

But you may not realize it will change the look of your hair as stress and substance use accumulates.

Some drugs like cocaine can change the structure of the follicle itself. Thinning hair is the result, taking away from someone who may have loved their full head of hair before.

It can also break the hair growth cycle and stop new growth. This telogen effluvium occurs when the follicles go into a resting state and may not be reversible as long as you continue to use substances that cause the condition.

Once you stop using you can see gains in a few months. Permanent hair loss is rare.

Substance Use Damage to the Scalp

Unfortunately hair isn’t the only part of your body that suffers when you abuse substances or have an increase in stress. Depending on the substance used you may also feel tingling in the scalp.

For example, methamphetamine often causes tactile hallucinations where people feel like bugs are crawling on them. Using drugs causes various forms of hair loss often from pulling or scratching the scalp to relieve scalp tingling.

Many people don’t realize the risk of this sensation until the damage is done. They may pick at it and scratch leaving sores that are hard to heal.

In addition to sores you may have dry skin which translates to your scalp. It may look like increased dandruff that doesn’t respond to topical treatments like special shampoos and conditioners.

Get Accredited Treatment Programs at Purpose

Stress and Scalp Damage: Tingling Sensation with Anxiety

Of course you may see scalp issues that have nothing to do with substance use. Many people experience the same tingling sensation when they have an increase in anxiety and stress. It’s not always related to nerve damage or tactile hallucinations.

In fact it’s very common when you have panic attacks which can be triggered by situations where you experience triggers for your trauma.

The scalp tingling sensation is one of the first symptoms of an impending anxiety attack. It may feel like tingling or it can be sharp pain like a prick, increased pressure, burning or itching. By giving in to the feeling and scratching to relieve the pain you are disrupting scalp health. When combined with substance use those sores can linger.

How to Treat Hair Loss from Substance Abuse and Stress

Balanced Diet to Treat Hair Loss from Substance Abuse and Stress

With all of this in mind it’s time to ask: how do you stop hair loss? Using harsh chemicals won’t help and can even cause skin infections if you have open sores on your scalp. There are several treatment options but they involve treating the underlying condition.

Balanced Diet and Lifestyle Changes

One of the reasons hair growth suffers when you struggle with substance use is because you may let your overall health fall by the wayside. You may skip meals, choose convenience foods over cooking healthy meals and generally opt for junk food over fresh fruits and vegetables.

The problem is that lack of nutritional support causes hair loss and prevents strands from growing. If you can change your lifestyle and eat a balanced diet you get to the root of what may be an underlying medical condition.

Eating healthy and exercising regularly doesn’t require a diagnosis. These lifestyle changes are something you can do on your own at home.

Implants for a Long Term Skin Condition

Maybe you feel like nutritional support isn’t going to get you the results you want as fast as you want them. You may have thought implants were only for people with male pattern baldness. But you can try it if you want a quick fix for thinning hair.

While implants are safe there are complications to consider if you continue to use substances. For example implants can cause more itching on the scalp. By giving in because you aren’t thinking clearly you can mess up your implants and cause more sores on the scalp.

Laser Therapy to Stimulate Hair Growth

Of all the treatments laser therapy can get to the root of your health issues. If the problem is that substance use has diverted blood flow away from the scalp then you may be able to counteract it with some low level laser therapy.

It’s simple: you sit with special headgear and let the lasers do the work. You can wear a headband or hat or use a comb to apply the lasers to the affected area. Best results with lasers are seen when combined with other lifestyle changes and treatment of underlying neurological conditions that contribute to hair loss.

Substance Use Treatment Options for Dual Diagnosis

Of course hair loss from prolonged substance use isn’t the same as hair loss from head lice or seborrheic dermatitis. Hair growth depends on your ability to change your lifestyle and gain control over substance use and even stress from post traumatic stress disorder and anxiety.

In other words you need to get help to stop using substances and get to the root of the issue.

Purpose Healing Center can help you stop drugs and alcohol with evidence based treatments and a doctor. Our team will take you from the early days of sobriety in a medical detox to a residential treatment program where you can live in the safety of our center.

We also help dual diagnosis clients who may have anxiety or PTSD. From cognitive behavioral therapy to discussing medication side effects we will make sure you are educated on your condition and equipped to live your best life when you leave our program.

Up To 100% of Rehab Costs Covered By Insurance

Contact Purpose Healing Center Today

Whether you need medication for severe stress or help quitting substances for good Purpose Healing Center is here for you. We want to make sure you are as healthy as you can be no matter what the medical term is for your hair loss.

We help with substance use and stress in a comfortable and safe environment. If you’re ready to address the issue that causes hair loss and scalp tingling then contact our admissions team today.

Let us answer your questions and verify your insurance benefits in a quick and confidential call!