Adrenaline Addiction and Depression among Veterans in the Civilian Workforce: A Personal and Professional Reflection

Addiction is often discussed in terms of substances like alcohol, opioids, and stimulants. But not all addictions are chemical. Some are behavioral. Some are born not in back alleyways and some unknowingly born while serving in the military. As the daughter of a mother addicted to alcohol, nicotine, and prescription medications, addiction framed my earliest memories. I remember the cigarette ashes in my drinks, the secondhand smoke lingering in every room, and the forged prescriptions stolen from blank medical pads and laying around. That chaos shaped my childhood [1,2]. 

Later, I enlisted in the military, where I found an unexpected companion: adrenaline. The structure, danger, and purpose of military life brought intensity and with it, a high I didn’t yet recognize and didn’t even know I felt. When I transitioned to civilian life, I experienced not just loss of identity, but a psychological crash. I wasn’t alone [3]. 

Many veterans I knew, some close friends who spiraled into depression, loss of purpose and direction, substance misuse, or suicide. And I began to wonder: Could we be addicted to the adrenaline of military life? 

This question drove my master’s thesis and inspired the commentary you’re reading now. 

• The problem: An invisible addiction 

Military service conditions individuals to function in environments of constant arousal. Combat zones, high intensity training, crisis response, and mission-critical urgency create sustained neurochemical stimulation primarily adrenaline and cortisol. Over time, this can mirror the neural adaptations seen in substance use, where the brain recalibrates to expect constant stimulation. Once discharged, veterans often find themselves in low-risk environments, cubicles, call centers, joblessness. In these settings, that biochemical stimulation abruptly ceases. What follows is an underrecognized withdrawal: fatigue, anhedonia, restlessness, and depression. 

Adrenaline addiction is not yet officially codified in diagnostic manuals, but its behavioral and physiological parallels with substance withdrawal are striking. It is, in effect, an addiction to intensity [4]. 

• What my study found 

In my study of 147 veterans across various civilian job sectors, participants completed the PHQ-9 depression inventory and reported their current employment. Job types were categorized as high-risk (e.g., firefighting, law enforcement, manual labor) or low-risk (e.g., administrative, education, healthcare) [5]. 

Key findings include: 

Veterans in public safety roles reported an average PHQ-9 score of 8.2 (mild depression), compared to 12.8 for office workers and 15.1 for the unemployed. 

Manual laborers, often overlooked in this discussion, reported the lowest mean score of 3.5, suggesting that physical engagement and environmental stressors may substitute for traditional adrenaline sources. 

A significant correlation (r = 0.258, p = 0.002) was found between employment type and depression severity, with high-risk roles offering a protective effect. 

These results support the hypothesis that veterans may be unknowingly self-regulating their mood by choosing jobs that replicate the stimulation of military life [6]. 

• A Societal failure: What we're missing 

Society tells veterans to “adjust” to fit into jobs that are stable, quiet, and safe. But this ignores the psychological recalibration many service members undergo during active duty. We are trying to rehabilitate warriors by removing the very conditions their brains have adapted to thrive in. 

This mismatch has consequences: 

Unrecognized behavioral addictions go untreated [7,8]. 

Traditional therapy may misdiagnose adrenaline withdrawal as standalone depression or anxiety. 

Vocational programs may push veterans into inappropriate roles, exacerbating distress. 

Suicide prevention efforts often overlook occupational triggers and unmet neurological needs. 

• What we can and must do 

The implications of these findings are clear: We must reimagine how we support veterans during transition, starting with how we understand their needs. 

1. Recognize adrenaline addiction as real 

Mental health professionals must consider behavioral dependencies like adrenaline when assessing veterans. This calls for updates in both clinical language and screening tools. 

2. Redefine “appropriate” job placement 

High-risk jobs should not be avoided—they should be offered, regulated and supported.

Employment services and the VA must tailor recommendations to veterans’ psychological profiles, not generic ideals [9,10]. 

3. Provide adrenaline substitution therapies 

Programs such as adventure therapy, high-intensity training, or competitive extreme sports could serve as therapeutic outlets for those withdrawing from chronic hyperarousal [11]. 

4. transitional mental health care with vocational planning 

Veteran care should be holistic. Job placement, mental health, identity reconstruction, and peer support must be addressed simultaneously, not in silos [12]. 

5. Conduct longitudinal research 

More studies are needed to track veterans over time and examine how adrenaline-based behavioral patterns evolve post-discharge, particularly among women and minority service members.

Adrenaline addiction is not a weakness. It is a neurobiological adaptation to intense service, and it deserves understanding, not dismissal. As a veteran, a daughter of addiction, and a mental health advocate, I urge the addiction research community to broaden its lens. Addiction is not always about substances. Sometimes, it’s about sensation; about survival; about the habits that once kept us alive but later leave us hollow. Let us stop forcing veterans into molds they were never shaped to fit. Let us meet them where they are and build systems that honor who they’ve become.

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