Self-Medicating

Through working on the Inspired Recovery project and reading widely about mental health, I have began the long education process of learning about mental illness. It appears that there are still many facets of this complex issue that are still to be explored in their entirety.

Many people I have spoken to have admitted a tendency to turn to substance abuse or “self-medicating” in an attempt to ease their considerable suffering.

Maree: “ I had a greater love/trust relationship with drugs than I had ever experienced with my family.”

Joe: “The hardest thing to do in my life was to stop drinking.”

Julie: “I began to abuse alcohol regularly and developed a serious drinking problem that lasted for some years.”

This is by no means a factor in everyone’s experience with a mental illness but the quoted contributors from Inspired Recovery are not alone. In fact, over 50% of people with a severe mental illness also use illicit drugs and/or alcohol*.

The vital question we should be asking is: how can we help these people cope, without having to resort to excessive use of medication that endangers their lives.

Mary Dodds, author of Schizophrenia: A Happier and Healthier Life, explains that people with a serious mental illness who self-medicate with either illicit drugs or alcohol are simply trying to find something to make them feel better, to end their pain. People with a mental illness suffer a great deal emotionally and psychologically and for this reason tend to seek solace to end their suffering, if only for a short while.

However, there is ample evidence to suggest that self-medicating is not the answer. As Dodds warns, this will only make the symptoms worse. Substance misuse increases the odds of suicide, incarceration, hepatitis, HIV, homelessness and aggression. In short, self-medicating is dangerous and detrimental to one’s health and research suggests it is counter-productive.

The solutions to this problem are by no means simple but perhaps there is something the rest of us could be doing. Let’s Talk About It! Raising awareness many not, in itself, provide the entire answer but the more first-hand information on how to get well, stay well and live well the higher the chances for successful recovery.

Let’s Talk About It! Tell us about your experience.

K


*Cleary M, Hunt GE, Matheson SL, Siegfried N, Walter G. Psychosocial interventions for people with both severe mental illness and substance misuse. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2008, Issue 1. Art. No.: CD001088. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD001088.pub2.