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Does Substance Use lead to mental illness or does mental illness lead to substance use?
The Pathology of Addiction
The term, “Comorbidity” describes two or more disorders or illnesses occurring in the same person. They can occur at the same time or one after the other.
According to JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association):
Alcohol
Mood and Behavior Changes
One of the main problems associated with using alcohol to deal with anxiety and depression is that people may feel much worse when the effects have worn off. Alcohol is thought to use up and reduce the amount of neurotransmitters in the brain, but the brain needs a certain level of neurotransmitters to ward off anxiety and depression. This can lead some people to drink more, to ward off these difficult feelings, and a dangerous cycle of dependence can develop.
Alcohol is a depressant. It is a drug that slows down the brain. It changes a person's ability to think, speak, and see things as they really are. A person may lose his/her balance, and have trouble walking properly. The person may feel relaxed and happy, but later start to cry or get in an argument. Drinking too much alcohol, can lead to alcohol poisoning, which can end up killing a person. Over time, people who abuse alcohol can do serious damage to their bodies. The liver, which removes poison from the blood, is especially at risk.
Long-Term Effects of Alcohol
Coffee, tea and chocolate, soft drinks, energy drinks, painkillers and cold remedies.
coffee = 40mg of caffeine per cup
pop = 23mg
energy drinks = 80mg or more
Plain chocolate has 40mg caffeine per 100g – (3x as much as milk chocolate)
Caffeine stimulates the brain and nervous system
Caffeine
Negative side effects = increased heart rate and blood pressure and makes you pass more urine (lose calcium), can make you anxious, restless, irritable, jittery and sleepless, headaches, stomach pain, nausea, muscle twitching or palpitations .
Stimulants are substances that temporarily increase alertness and energy. Stimulants include caffeine and tobacco as well as amphetamines, anabolic steroids, ‘poppers’, hallucinogenic amphetamines (ecstasy), cocaine and crack. They act on the central nervous system and increase brain activity.
Negative side-effects = nervousness, anxiety and paranoia
Depressants: SLOW DOWN BRAIN ACTIVITY
These include minor tranquillizers such as Valium, Librium, Mogadon and temazepam, solvents, glues, aerosols and gases.
They impair mental and physical activity and decrease self-control.
Long Term Effects
Analgesics:
Analgesics are painkillers and include heroin, opium, pethidine and codeine. They make users less sensitive to emotion and physical pain.
Cannabis, LSD and magic mushrooms. Hallucinogens act on the mind, heightening sensations and distorting the way users see and hear things.
Long Term Effects
Marijuana remains the most abused illegal substance among youth. By the time they graduate high school, about 46 percent of U.S. teens will have tried marijuana at least once in their lifetime.
Marijuana can be addictive. Marijuana is estimated to produce addiction in approximately 9 percent, or about 1 in 11, of those who use it at least once.
This rate increases to about 1 in 6, or 17 percent, for users who start in their teens, and 25–50 percent among daily users.
Marijuana is the most commonly identified illegal drug in fatal accidents (showing up in the bloodstream of about 14 percent of drivers), sometimes in combination with alcohol or other drugs. By itself, marijuana is believed to roughly double a driver's chances of being in an accident, and the combination of marijuana and even small amounts of alcohol is even more dangerous—more so than either substance by itself.
Marijuana can induce acute psychosis
(disturbed perceptions and thoughts,
including paranoia) or panic attacks.
Long Term Effects
You may smoke tobacco to help you relax or you may feel that smoking helps you cope with stress, but the health effects of smoking are very serious.
Associated with cancer and heart and lung disease
Second hand smoke
Long Term Effects
Inhalants refers to the vapors from toxic substances which are inhaled to reach a quick high. More than 1,000 household and other common products can be abused as inhalants. Most of these products produce effects similar to anesthetics, which slow down the body's functions. The chemicals are rapidly absorbed through the lungs into the bloodstream and quickly reach the brain and other organs. Inhalants are also known as air blast, hardware, hippie crack, laughing gas, spray and whiteout.
Long Term Effects
Resources:
http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/help-information/mental-health-a-z/D/drugs/
http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/comorbidity-addiction-other-mental-disorders
www.nami.org
www.teachinginawonderland.com