Drug addiction and mental illness often occur side by side in a relationship of mutual cause and effect. The national institute of drug addiction claims that “Drugs of abuse can cause abusers to experience one or more symptoms of another mental illness.” This is because risk factors for mental illness and drug addiction often overlap. The nature of this relationship traps users in an increasingly downward spiral into mental illness and drug dependency. Often addicts trapped in this relationship are rejected by others which serves in only strengthening there social, physical, and mental dependence on drug use. I find this correlation between between mental illness and addiction to be an interesting but incredibly unfortunate. Not only do addiction and mental illness increase the likelihood of one another the causes of both are often the same. This result in putting certain people at a much higher risk for both addiction and mental illness.
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The changes in your body as a result of repeated drug use has the effect of making the body increasingly physically and behaviorally dependent on that substance. Withdrawal symptoms is the body attempt to rebalance itself once you suddenly stop repeated use it has learned to compensate for. User organs and tissues has altered to behave normally in the presence of drugs and must now return to normal function. This article describes withdrawal “If the body doesn’t have the drug, its biological adaptations can cause a series of side effects”. Tolerances that are built up by addicts can be both physical and behavioral. Not only do addicts need to use to keep their bodies functioning normally they need to use in order to go through daily life and behave normally. Some can appear sober despite being in a unsafe condition and serious user need to be under the influence in order to perform simple societal tasks. Metabolism also slows in response to use and the emotional state of the users changes to behave normally all while under the influence. The emotional states of users is extremely important when it come to how they react to drug use. Certain drugs may result in amplifying or numbing undesirable emotions. When a user suddenly stops the body can no longer function normally while sober. Interesting these bodily changes caused by repeated use can be passed on to a user’s children.
“Retraining the Brain in Addiction and Mental Health Treatment.” Psychology Today,
Its is important that addicts seeking treatment are treated for their coinciding mental illnesses. Whether drug addiction led to a mental disorder or the condition was preexisting almost all remedial addicts suffer from some mental illness. In this article the importance of cognitive therapy is stresses “Ignoring cognitive function in behavioral health treatment is just like going to the doctor and receiving treatment for a broken arm without first taking an x-ray to determine whether or not the bone is broken.” The underlying factors that can lead to relapse should be addressed in order for an addict to learn to live a drug free lifestyle. Addiction treatment is often misunderstood to be a choice or a purely physical addiction. In reality both a person’s biological, mental, and emotional needs should be addressed for proper drug treatment. The need for cognitive therapy on emphasizes the complex nature of addiction as a mental and physical condition.
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