Substance Abuse and Mental Illness

When it comes to comorbidity this is the first example that I am always brought to. It’s the struggle that an individual would have when dealing with serious substance abuse and mental illness. When people encounter someone like this they almost always assume that the issue is solely the substance use and try to address the issue that way. They think it is as simple as putting someone in a detox or rehab and then they will be clean for the remainder of their life. Anyone that has dealt with substance abuse or has a family member that has gone through this will tell you it is not as simple. I’m blessed enough to have worked with various populations within this field so that I can explain how difficult it is to deal with substance abuse especially when it is paired with mental illness. First thing to consider is what stage of change this individual is in. If this is the first time that you are hearing this term, check out my post on that topic. Depending on where they are will determine how effective any type of intervention would be. Let’s look at the situation with the child actor, Tyler Chase. He has been dealing with homelessness and substance abuse for some time and various friends of his has tried to help him. Recently one of his co-stars, Daniel Curtis Lee, attempted to house him and put him in a hotel room. Unfortunately soon after the room was trashed and he left the room. Some people would ask why they didn’t put him in a rehab and the answer is simple, he was not ready for that. A detox program takes away your belongings and forces you into sobriety. Anyone that uses drugs, part of the reason that getting clean is so difficult, knows that the withdrawal symptoms after not using drugs for sometime can be debilitating to the point that they can get very sick. No one wants to deal with that in the same way no one wants to be addicted to drugs. Getting to the stage where a person is ready to make a change is them understanding that the next couple of weeks or months, not days, will be hell and they may not be physically or mentally strong for that. As a society that lives in a time where information is at our fingertips, you don’t need personal experience to understand this however I have come to a realization that not many people are able to think outside of themselves and rarely do any research when forming an opinion. After the detox a person may go into rehab but many do not. They go back to the community where they still have access to the same drugs that they were using and fall back into the bad habit after even the minor inconvenience. It’s not enough to go to rehab or detox but an entire lifestyle change needs to happen if this intervention is to stick and again some people don’t have the mental or physical willpower to overcome it. Now if we pair mental illness with the substance abuse we come across a beast that is very difficult to tame. Certain services are available for this type of affliction but in the current political era that we are in, I wouldn’t be surprised if these places are few in between because of lack of funding due to lack of general knowledge about this issue. Nothing within this realm is as black or white as the news or social media users may make it seem and often it takes people that are well versed or have personal experience to shine light on the truth of the matter. Unfortunately until education and focusing on the wellbeing of the citizens is brought back to the forefront of this society, we will continue to see situations such as this continue to get worse as time goes on.

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