What's doing your head in?

Alcohol or Drug Problems

People use drugs and alcohol in different ways. Some people use them to relax, some to experiment, some to get consistently high. Problem is, overdoing it or coming to rely on drugs and alcohol doesn’t just affect your body, it can really start to mess up your mind, affecting your thoughts and your feelings.

In the short term, the effects of drugs and alcohol usually wear off as the substance leaves your system. But sometimes the comedown is hard to handle – so even though drugs and alcohol might be used to relax, they can have the reverse effect and act as a depressant.

Anxiety & depression

For some people, alcohol and drugs – like cannabis, ecstasy and acid (LSD) – can lead to mental health problems, such as anxiety and depression. This can be unpredictable and can happen in the long-term or short-term. Sometimes it can happen if someone already has some kind of mental health issue or has some general problems in their life. When you start to rely on drugs – and we mean prescription drugs too – as a way of dealing with social and personal problems, or “helping” you to handle situations or disguise your real feelings, it’s vital to sort it out fast. It can lead to a situation where you find yourself with both mental health problems and a drug dependency/addiction. Each then makes the other worse. As we all know, most drugs are illegal. However you feel about that, don’t forget that drug use can get out of control, sometimes quite easily and without you even realising it, and can get you into the kind of difficulties that lead to gloom and depression – and no-one wants that.

Alcohol addiction and drug addiction

Many experts think that relying on a drug or being addicted to a substance is in itself a mental health problem. When people stop taking a substance that they are addicted to they can go through physical withdrawal symptoms. But what can be even worse are the psychological cravings – you can literally start to feel like you are “going out of your head”.

Rehabilitation and drug/alcohol advice

Taking the positive step of deciding to come off your reliance on drink or drugs is not always completely straightforward. You can experience panic attacks, paranoia, anxiety, depression, lack of sleep and loss of concentration. So it’s important that you get some support to help you through these fairly dark times. Remember: you can and you will do it – and you don’t have to do it in isolation.