A Cocktail For Disaster: Connecting Mental Illness to Addiction

Initially, the title of this blog was "A Recipe For Disaster..." But I used to really (stress this) enjoy a few cocktails. Or an entire bottle of cocktail mix. And that nearly killed me.

That aside, in this blog I want to focus on why those living with mental illness may abuse substances, what some of these substances are, and the impact this can have when we are working to recover from mental illness.

Why Might People With Mental Illness Abuse Substances?

First, let's clarify what "substances" means. It is not cut and dry---it's complicated! You have your usual suspects: Alcohol, stimulants like cocaine, and "downers" like heroin. And everything in between.

What we often forget is that food can be abused, smoking cigarettes is an addiction, taking too much of prescribed medication like sleeping pills or anxiety pills. Even products that line the shelves of your local pharmacy: Tylenol with codeine, numerous medications that cause "sleepiness", and things that seem innocuous like caffeine pills and energy drinks.

People with a mental illness often abuse substances to "numb" themselves to the symptoms of their mental illness. And it makes perfect sense. When you feel pain you want nothing more than for it to stop. If a bottle of wine keeps it a bay you might drink it. But this doesn't work for long; addiction creeps up on you slowly until it has devoured you, your life, and you are left to pick up the pieces. If you can find them.

Is it Possible to Recover From Mental Illness When Abusing Substances?

Psychiatric patients who present with both untreated mental illness and addiction are often the hardest to treat. Your mental health care team needs to figure out what came first--the addiction or the mental illness? Addiction can cause the onset of mental illness or the onset of mental illness causes a person to abuse substances in an attempt to treat symptoms. It's bloody well complicated and I can tell you first hand that recovering from a mental illness while abusing substances makes recovery impossible. You can call me out on this one but I have yet to see anyone heavily abusing substances that fully recovered.

A few reasons why: Psychiatric medications cannot work properly if mixed with alcohol or drugs. It can even be fatal. I suffered with seizures and overdose more times than I care to recall. This was directly caused by mixing dangerous substances with medication. Your mind and body needs to be free of excess chemicals before it can respond to treatment.

I recall my psychiatrist telling me she would no longer treat me if I were using. So, like most addicts, I lied at each appointment. She took one look at my shaking hands and sickly looking face and dismissed me from the clinic.

But it isn't all negative. You can work to recover from addiction while working to recover from mental illness. I can't tell you this is easy. I can't tell you it will work. What I can tell you is it's possible but treatment is different: You don't have just a psychiatrist and a mental health team, you have to actively work to get and stay clean, and often this is as hard as recovering from mental illness.

Addiction is a mental illness in its own right, but if you work to treat both, accept help and practice self-care, the outlook is positive.

Please take a look at our "Debunking Addiction" blog for great and informative information.