We have been paying special attention to the relationship between stress and addiction here at AddictionNews. Some of the nuances we have recently uncovered include:

• Childhood trauma is a common background in the majority of people being treated for substance use disorders.

• Stress is an accelerant, turning substance use into substance abuse.

• The push of stress is much more of a motivator for substance abuse than the pull of pleasure or intoxication.

It comes as no surprise, then, when current headline news backs up this theory that stress is the source of addiction.

A new report from the Israeli Center for Addiction and Mental Health (ICAMH) shows a dramatic increase in substance use disorders (SUDs) since the October 23, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas terrorists.

In 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, Israel had a significant substance abuse problem with 10% of the adult population diagnosed with SUDs.

The number rose substantially during the pandemic to reach 15% of the adult population in 2021.

Then came the October 2023 attacks, and the latest survey shows 25%, or one in four adult Israelis, suffer from an SUD. Included in the details:

• Use of sedatives increased by 250% between 2019 and 2025.
• Use of opiates nearly doubled from 2019 to 2025.
• Of people diagnosed with PTSD, 54.2% have a SUD.

Dr. Shaul Lev-Ran, Co-Founder and Director of the Israel Center on Addiction, pointed directly at the logical cause for the dramatic increase in SUDs:

After two and a half years of very high alertness and stress levels, it’s only natural that people will look for some way to calm down.

Dr. Lev-Ran told Y-NET Global, “In the past two years, we’ve seen a doubling in opioid use. It’s an increase we started seeing a few months after the war began, and it hasn’t gone down.”

Another indication that stress is the source of addiction is that Israel has seen a dramatic increase in addiction to stimulants. It is like stress opens a pathway for addiction, and it doesn’t matter whether it’s a stimulant, a depressant, or ultraprocessed food. In an enlightened observation, Dr. Lev-Ran notes:

At its core, escapism shifts attention away from what is happening here and now. If stimulants increase dopamine and excitement, then painkillers have significant side effects of sedation and blurring, which make coping with reality easier, even if only temporarily. And we must remember that pain is pain, whether physical or emotional.

That is a perfect description of the process of displacement, whereby substance use is an attempt to shift the attention “away from what is happening here and now.” The relationship between stress and substance abuse is corroborated by Israeli studies of the impact of the war on sleep.

Prior to the war, 7% of adult Israelis had sleep disturbances severe enough to be rated as insomnia. Today the number is a shocking 25% — nearly the same as the number of Israelis with SUDs — according to Dr. Shoham Choshen-Hillel at Hebrew University Business School. The two metrics shot up together, side by side.

The end of the war will mean another long battle against the SUDs. Dr. Lev-Ran warns, “Once someone develops the habit, they keep it even after the fighting ends.” A new stress, the stress of withdrawal, will replace the stress of war. Medications can help with the cravings, but patients must find non-harmful substitute activities to displace the stress to ward off a return to harmful substances.

Written by Steve O’Keefe. First published July 17, 2026.

Sources:

“One in four Israelis using hard drugs amid Gaza genocide and regional wars,” Middle East Eye, July 12, 2026.

“How war with Iran is fueling Israel’s booming black market for prescription drugs,” Y-NET Global, March 4, 2026.

Image Copyright: neovidio.