Drug Addiction and Depression
Photo credit Eggybird at Flickr
It’s been said that depression is the “common cold” of the mental health world. About 5 percent of the U.S. population is experiencing a major episode of depression at any given moment. For people addicted to drugs, the likelihood for developing depression increases significantly. Depression affects your thoughts, your feelings, and your body. Take a look at how addiction can become intertwined with depression.
Lack of Energy
When you’re depressed, you just don’t feel much like doing anything. There’s very little get-up-and-go to your day. Drinking or taking drugs may cause problems with your appetite, too. You miss out on good nutrition that would give you healthy energy throughout the day. Also, you might be using a drug that perks you up or slows you down even more. All of this really messes with your ability to have lasting energy.
Sleep Problems
Depression can turn your sleep cycle upside-down. You feel like sleeping all day, or you have trouble with insomnia. Anyone who’s gotten off-track with their sleep for more than a day or two can recall how messed up they felt. Some of your “self-medicating” activities might be intended to help you settle down or stay awake.
Negative Thoughts and Negative Mood
Depression churns up negative thoughts like “This is pointless,” “It’ll never get better,” “It’s hopeless,” and “I’m worthless.” This goes hand-in-hand with a negative mood. This mood could look like sadness, irritability and impatience, or full-fledged anger. All of this tends to be worse when you add drinking or drug use. Using decreases your inhibitions and judgment. In other words, you’re a lot more likely to let your angry mood get you into fist fight after you’ve gotten drunk or high.
Thoughts of Self Harm
People with depression sometimes think about hurting themselves, either to escape or to really end the pain of living. Drinking or drug use can knock your judgment out of whack. When you have scary thoughts about hurting yourself, you walk a really dangerous line. You might get high just to shut the awful thoughts out of your head. Or worse, you could actually attempt to hurt yourself when you’re drunk because your emotions are in charge. People with addictions are more likely to attempt suicide than people with only depression.
Social Isolation
When someone is depressed, they often believe that they are crazy, and no one would understand them. They are embarrassed by how confused and awful they feel, so they tend to withdraw. Also, their negative mood and lack of energy can cause friends and family to pull away from them. This can be a discouraging cycle just when they need social support the most. You might drink or use to cover up the pain of feeling alone, which can make this cycle even more painful and isolating.
All this talk about symptoms isn’t meant to be disheartening. Depression is a very treatable condition. Social support, good counseling, sometimes medication, and skill building are effective tools for treating depression. The professionals at the Canyon really know what they’re doing when it comes to treating two serious problems like this at one time.
There are more symptoms of depression than the ones listed here, so tell us your experience. Sometimes it helps to let someone know what you’re going through.
Have you been through a period of depression in your life? The examples listed above may or may not match your experience - so how have your depression symptoms been connected with your addiction?
Tags: Depression, Drug Addiction Treatment, Dual Diagnosis
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