Mental Illness and the Substance Abuse – Alcoholism/Drug Addiction Connection
Posted Oct 03 2010 8:57pm
by Lisa Frederiksen
I’ve read several articles recently about the importance of aggressively helping our troops who suffer from PTSD. I wholeheartedly agree but want to raise another important reason for taking all necessary steps to treat PTSD, including immediate assessments and accessible treatment; easy-to-access, comprehensive health care coverage; stigma mitigation; help and support for family members, to name a few. The additional reason is the fact that mental illness is one of the key risk factors contributing to a person’s developing alcoholism or drug addiction.
Often it starts with a person abusing alcohol or drugs in order to feel better — in essence, to self-medicate the mental illness. Repeated substance abuse, however, causes chemical and structural changes in the brain (as do mental health illnesses, such as PTSD, by the way). In fact, thirty-seven percent of alcohol abusers and fifty-three percent of drug abusers also have at least one serious mental illness, such as depression, PTSD, bipolar, anxiety, schizophrenia.
So why is this helpful to know? If your one is grappling with their alcohol or drug use – talks about wanting to cut back or you observe they’re drinking/using frequently and/or abusively on repeated occasions – they may, in fact, be suffering from a mental health illness and trying to cope with that by abusing alcohol or drugs. This knowledge may be especially helpful if you are dealing with a teen with ADHD, a spouse with depression or a loved one who is a veteran or has recently returned from deployment in Iraq or Afghanistan with PTSD. AND, if your loved one has been diagnosed with a mental health illness, it may be helpful for them to know the potential consequences of alcohol or drug abuse (or in some cases, simply alcohol or drug use).
by Lisa Frederiksen
I’ve read several articles recently about the importance of aggressively helping our troops who suffer from PTSD. I wholeheartedly agree but want to raise another important reason for taking all necessary steps to treat PTSD, including immediate assessments and accessible treatment; easy-to-access, comprehensive health care coverage; stigma mitigation; help and support for family members, to name a few. The additional reason is the fact that mental illness is one of the key risk factors contributing to a person’s developing alcoholism or drug addiction.
Often it starts with a person abusing alcohol or drugs in order to feel better — in essence, to self-medicate the mental illness. Repeated substance abuse, however, causes chemical and structural changes in the brain (as do mental health illnesses, such as PTSD, by the way). In fact, thirty-seven percent of alcohol abusers and fifty-three percent of drug abusers also have at least one serious mental illness, such as depression, PTSD, bipolar, anxiety, schizophrenia.
So why is this helpful to know? If your one is grappling with their alcohol or drug use – talks about wanting to cut back or you observe they’re drinking/using frequently and/or abusively on repeated occasions – they may, in fact, be suffering from a mental health illness and trying to cope with that by abusing alcohol or drugs. This knowledge may be especially helpful if you are dealing with a teen with ADHD, a spouse with depression or a loved one who is a veteran or has recently returned from deployment in Iraq or Afghanistan with PTSD. AND, if your loved one has been diagnosed with a mental health illness, it may be helpful for them to know the potential consequences of alcohol or drug abuse (or in some cases, simply alcohol or drug use).
For additional information, check out hbo/Addiction: “ Co-occurring Disorders ”