Tag: mental health

Emma Stone Is Doing Her Part To Shatter Mental Health Stigma

The actress has joined the board of an organization dedicated to helping children with mental health and learning disorders.

Actress Emma Stone, who has spoken publicly about her struggles with anxiety, is joining the board of directors at The Child Mind Institute, a non-profit organization that supports children with learning and mental health disorders.

“I’m honored to join the board of The Child Mind Institute. This is a stigma-shattering organization I am deeply passionate about, and I’m looking forward to helping the Child Mind Institute continue to advance its critically important work,” Stone, 30, said in a statement to PEOPLE.

Stone has dealt with anxiety since she was a teenager, but has said that acting — and therapy — have helped her keep her anxiety under control. She works to let others, especially young people, know that they can have a fulfilling life despite anxiety.

“Emma’s courage in openly discussing her story with anxiety is inspirational,” said Dr. Harold S Koplewicz, president of The Child Mind Institute. “It offers hope to millions of kids that it is possible to overcome their own challenges and thrive.”

In 2017, Stone recorded a video as part of the institute’s awareness campaign that asked people to share what they would like to tell their younger selves.

“What I could tell kids who are going through anxiety, which I have, is that you’re so normal it’s crazy,” she said. “It’s so normal, everyone experiences a version of anxiety or worry in their lives and maybe we go through it in a different or more intense way, or for longer periods of time, but there’s nothing wrong with you.”

Stone talked about the often over-looked flip-side to anxiety.

“To be a sensitive person that cares a lot, that takes things in in a deeper way, is actually part of what makes you amazing and is one of the greatest gifts in life: you think a lot, you feel a lot, and it’s the best,” Stone said. “I wouldn’t trade it for the world even when there are really hard times.”

She said that over time she has learned how to manage her anxiety and what things are likely to set it off.

“There are so many tools you can use to help yourself in those [bad] time, and it does get better and easier as life goes on and you get to know yourself more and what will trigger certain instances of anxiety, and where you feel comfortable and safe.”

Overall, experiencing anxiety is very common, she said.

“Don’t ever feel like you’re a weirdo for it because we’re all weirdos.”

View the original article at thefix.com

7 February 2019
Actor Kristoff St. John Found Dead Of Suspected Alcohol Poisoning

“He was able to overcome so many things, but the death of Julian was just a breaking point for him in a lot of ways,” said one source.

On Monday February 4th, prolific actor Kristoff St. John was found dead, and alcohol poisoning is suspected. The official cause of death is deferred pending further investigation, USA Today reports.

For almost 30 years Kristoff St. John starred in the soap opera, The Young and the Restless, as Neil Winters. Beloved by friends, family, and coworkers, St. John’s life had been struck by tragedy when in November 2014 his 24-year-old son, Julian St. John died by suicide while undergoing treatment at a mental health facility.

At age 18, Julian had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, a serious mental illness that comes with a 40% risk of a suicide attempt, with males being at higher risk than females.

After Julian’s suicide, Kristoff St. John and his ex-wife Mia St. John, a respected boxer and Julian’s mother, sued the mental health facility where their son died for negligence, and won an out-of-court settlement.

According to TMZ, in winter 2017, Kristoff St. John reportedly attempted suicide close to the time of the third anniversary of his son’s death. St. John was placed on a 72-hour suicide watch after threatening to shoot himself.

On January 21, St. John retweeted what now seems to be a terrible harbinger, a message that read: ‘Grieving the loss of a child is a process. It begins on the day your child passes, and ends the day the parent joins them.’

“He was able to overcome so many things, but the death of Julian was just a breaking point for him in a lot of ways,” Stephanie Sloane, editorial director of Soap Opera Digest, said of St. John, to PEOPLE.

St. John’s ex-wife, immediately following the announcement of Kristoff St. John’s death, blamed the mental health facility. She wrote on Twitter in a since-deleted tweet:

‘THAT HOSPITAL KILLED OUR SON THEN MY HUSBAND. THATS WHAT HAPPENED! THEY KILLED MY FAMILY.’

After the actor’s death was made public, friends and coworkers flooded social media with words of grief and fond remembrance of a man who seemed full of kindness and love. Actress Vivica A. Fox called St. John “a true gentleman.”

PEOPLE recounted St. John’s 2013 Soap Opera Digest interview, where he movingly discussed his son’s struggle.

“My son, Julian, has been suffering from a drug addiction for some years now and has also been diagnosed schizophrenic. Unfortunately, he doesn’t take his medication, which disallows a daily health routine,” he said. “Quite often, people who suffer from bipolar disorder self-medicate because they refused to take their pharmaceutical drugs, so we have had out issues. Poor boy felt that the local park was more of a home than his mother’s home or mine, based on the relationship he has with a certain female, and I can’t condone that relationship. I never thought my son would be the kid at the gas station with the gas can trying to get a couple of dollars out of somebody for a bogus story, and this is where Julian is.”

St. John discussed his son’s artistic abilities proudly, ending with, “There is hope.”

Kristoff St. John won two Daytime Emmys for his role in The Young and the Restless, playing an ambitious executive at a cosmetics company. Coworker and close friend Shemar Moore told PEOPLE, “This is not how he’s going to be remembered in his last days. He’s going to be remembered for his journey, for how much he loved his children — Paris, Lola, and Julian, his son who had a hard time and took his life.”

View the original article at thefix.com

6 February 2019
Can A Facebook Break Help Mental Health?

A new study examined whether deactivating Facebook could have a positive effect on mental health.

The connection between social media and mental health is nothing new, as more research implies that regular use of platforms such as Facebook can take a negative toll on users.

In fact, a new “Gold Standard” study from Stanford University and New York University researchers indicates that deactivating Facebook can have positive effects on one’s mental health.

According to Fast Company, researchers in the study sought out 2,844 Facebook users via Facebook ads. They asked the users to take part in an in-depth questionnaire about “overall well-being, political views, and daily routine.”

Of those, half were randomly chosen to be paid in order to deactivate their Facebook accounts for a full month. The accounts were monitored to make sure they remained deactivated. Over the four weeks, researchers studied the moods of the participants.

“Deactivation caused small but significant improvements in well-being, and in particular on self-reported happiness, life satisfaction, depression, and anxiety,” researchers wrote. “Effects on subjective well-being as measured by responses to brief daily text messages are positive but not significant.”

Despite the increase in well-being, researchers made sure to note that Facebook is beneficial for users in some cases.

“Our participants’ answers in free response questions and follow-up interviews make clear the diverse ways in which Facebook can improve people’s lives, whether as a source of entertainment, a means to organize a charity or an activist group, or a vital social lifeline for those who are otherwise isolated,” they wrote. “Any discussion of social media’s downsides should not obscure the basic fact that it fulfills deep and widespread needs.”

In conclusion, researchers noted that by not using Facebook, overall online activity was reduced and replaced by real-life activities such as spending time with friends and family and watching Netflix. They also added that participants who deactivated their accounts were found to have “lower levels of political polarization and news knowledge, and an increase in subjective well-being.”

“We find that while deactivation makes people less informed, it also makes them less polarized by at least some measures, consistent with the concern that social media have played some role in the recent rise of polarization in the U.S.,” researchers wrote.

Additionally, researchers found that participants who had deactivated their accounts continued to spend less time on Facebook even in the weeks after the study had ended.

“The trajectory of views on social media—with early optimism about great benefits giving way to alarm about possible harms—is a familiar one,” researchers concluded. “Innovations from novels to TV to nuclear energy have had similar trajectories. Along with the excellent existing work by other researchers, we hope that our analysis can help move the discussion from simplistic caricatures to hard evidence, and to provide a sober assessment of the way a new technology affects both individual people and larger social institutions.”

View the original article at thefix.com

5 February 2019
Orchestra Aims To Help Musicians With Mental Health Struggles

“I cannot count the ways the orchestra helps me. It has allowed me to overcome the shame I felt about living with mental illness,” said one member.

When he is conducting an orchestra, there’s nothing that alludes to Ronald Braunstein’s struggle with bipolar disorder.

That’s because, according to The New York Times, Braunstein finds that music helps him cope with and manage his diagnosis. In fact, he believes this so much that he has founded the Me2/Orchestra for performers who are dealing with mental health struggles.

Braunstein graduated from the Juilliard School in his early 20s before traveling to Austria for a summer program at the Salzburg Mozarteum. In 1979, he won the Karajan International Conducting Competition and was the first American to do so. From there his career blossomed.

At the time, he did not know he had bipolar disorder. He was not diagnosed until age 35. But he says in looking back, he sees how it affected his career.

“The unbelievable mania I experienced helped me win the Karajan,” he told the Times. “I learned repertoire fast. I studied through the night and wouldn’t sleep. I didn’t eat because if I did, it would take away my edge.”

“My bipolar disorder was just under the line of being under control,” he said. “It wasn’t easily detected. Most people thought I was weird.”

In Vermont, after being dropped by his manager and terminated from a job, he met a woman named Caroline Whiddon, who he later married. Whiddon had been the chairwoman for the Youth Orchestra Division of the League of American Orchestras and had struggled with depression and anxiety.

Braunstein contacted her in hopes of founding an orchestra for those who struggled with mental health issues.

In 2011, the Me2/Orchestra was born. Then in 2014, Me2/Boston was created. Both orchestras have about 50 members, ages 13 to 80, and perform six to eight times per year.

The orchestras are nonprofits and all musicians volunteer their times. Each year, Whiddon takes part in a letter-writing campaign to raise the money for expenses.

“When we perform at a hospital, center for the homeless or correctional facility,” Whiddon said, “the cost of that performance is covered by corporate sponsorships, grants or donations from individuals, so the performance is free to those who attend.”

Each time they perform, according to the Times, members of the orchestra discuss their mental health struggles and answer questions from the audience.

Jessica Stuart, 34, tells the Times that she had stopped playing violin in her 20s after her diagnosis of bipolar disorder. Now, as an orchestra member, she is back to playing.

“Joining the Me2/Orchestra in Boston in 2014 was the first time I had played in years,” she told the Times. “I cannot count the ways the orchestra helps me. It has allowed me to overcome the shame I felt about living with mental illness. I no longer feel I have to hide an important part of my life from the rest of the world.”

View the original article at thefix.com

1 February 2019
Dads' Post-Natal Depression May Affect Their Teenage Daughters

A new study found a connection between paternal depression and the later depression of their female offspring.

There’s been much more attention given to maternal mental health in recent years, but a new study suggests that paternal mental health is also important to the long-term health of children, particularly daughters.

The study, published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, examined more than 3,000 pairs of parents and children to try to understand how depression in a parent can increase depression risk in their offspring. The authors found that when dads are depressed during the postnatal period (8 weeks after a baby’s birth), their daughters are more likely to have symptoms of depression when they turn 18.

Interestingly, the study found that when dad is depressed, the mother may be more likely to have depression as well. In turn, this can affect the child, even in the long-term.

“Depression in fathers in the postnatal period has potential implications for family and child functioning into late childhood and adolescence; it should be addressed in perinatal services, and both parents should be considered when 1 presents with depression,” study authors wrote.

The connection between paternal depression and the depression of offspring was seen in girls, but not in boys.

“The association between paternal depression in the postnatal period and depression in girls at age 18 years is partially explained by maternal depression,” study authors wrote.

More research has been delving into how fatherhood affect men’s mental health. Last year, research suggested that fathers can experience hormonal changes after the birth of a baby, which can lead to depression and affect the function of the whole family.

Darby Saxbe, an assistant professor of psychology at USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and lead author of that study told Science Daily that we are still learning how fatherhood affects men.

“We often think of motherhood as biologically driven because many mothers have biological connections to their babies through breastfeeding and pregnancy. We don’t usually think of fatherhood in the same biological terms. We are still figuring out the biology of what makes dads tick,” Saxbe said.

Having a healthy father in the home can help improve outcomes for children.

“We know that fathers contribute a lot to child-rearing and that on the whole, kids do better if they are raised in households with a father present,” Saxbe said. “So, it is important to figure out how to support fathers and what factors explain why some fathers are very involved in raising their children while some are absent.”

View the original article at thefix.com

1 February 2019
Benzo Death Rates Among Women Skyrocket

A new report also shows the number of benzodiazepine prescriptions has sharply risen over an 18-year timeframe.

New statistics suggest that the overdose death rates involving the prescription drugs known as benzodiazepines have risen dramatically over the past decade, and approach statistics for heroin – and synthetic opioid-related overdose deaths.

A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that between 1999 and 2017, the number of women between the ages of 30 and 64 who died from an drug overdose involving benzodiazepines – a family of drugs used for anxiety – rose 830% during that time period.

The CDC also found that prescriptions for benzodiazepines rose by 67% during the approximate same time period.

Benzodiazepines, which include such medications as Xanax, Valium and Klonopin, can prove effective in treating conditions like anxiety or insomnia if taken on an intermittent basis over a period of a few weeks. But with long-term use, they also carry an increased risk for overdose if taken with opioids.

Their ability to calm or sedate the user through an increase in the neurotransmitter GABA in the brain, which can be dangerous if taken with drugs that slow breathing like opioids or even alcohol. The National Institute on Drug Abuse reported in 2018 that 30% of opioid-related overdoses also involved benzodiazepines.

The overall impact of benzodiazepine on overdose mortality rates paints a more alarming picture when observed over the time period covered in the CDC’s report. According to their research, overdose deaths involving benzodiazepines among women in the aforementioned target age group rose from 0.54 per 100,000 in 1997 to 5.02 per 100,000 in 2017 – a jump of 830%.

The number of benzodiazepine prescriptions also saw a startling increase during the study time frame, rising from 8.1 million adults in the United States who filled a prescription for the medication in 1996 to 13.5 million in 2013.

Prescriptions began to drop or level off after 2013, but overdose deaths maintained their steady climb: in 2016 alone, there were 10,685 overdose deaths attributed to the drug, while in 1999, the US total as just 1,135.

Commentary in the February 2018 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine suggested that education about the dangers of the drug and alternatives should be paired with national efforts to fight the opioid crisis.

Informing doctors and patients alike about their dangers, and the effectiveness of alternative treatments for anxiety and insomnia, could help to bring the numbers reported by the CDC down.

View the original article at thefix.com

31 January 2019
Shia LaBeouf's New Movie Highlights Father's Heroin Addiction Struggle

LaBeouf wrote the screenplay for the semi-autobiographical film while in rehab.

Shia LaBeouf’s latest film, Honey Boy, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 25 to tell the world the story of the actor’s odd and tumultuous childhood that led to his struggle with addiction and mental illness.

LaBeouf is known for his strange performance art as well as his acting and has been the subject of quite a bit of controversy during his long career.

The boy who began as the star of the children’s TV show Even Stevens grew into the man who was twice arrested for disorderly conduct and conducted a performance piece in which he sat with a paper bag over his head and cried for six days.

LaBeouf has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and has sought treatment for alcoholism, plus was ordered to attend an anger management program after going on a drunken tirade against the police who were arresting him for his second time.

Honey Boy is a semi-autobiographical film that shows the verbal and emotional abuse which may have led to the actor’s PTSD. Fittingly, the actor wrote the script while he was in rehab in 2018, according to The Wrap.

LaBeouf himself plays James Lort, a clear representation of his real-life father, Jeffrey LaBeouf. James, like Jeffrey, is a Vietnam veteran and convicted sex offender with alcoholism who “pushed his son around while stumbling through a series of poor decisions,” according to film critic Eric Kohn of IndieWire.

Meanwhile, Lucas Hedges plays a 20-something version of LaBeouf as his life quickly spirals out of control, culminating in a drunken car crash that lands him in jail and then rehab. While in therapy, he flashes back to the representation of LaBeouf’s childhood.

Financial troubles result in a divorce between the representation of LaBeouf’s parents, ending in LaBeouf (“Otis”) living with his mother in a run-down motel and a world without warmth made worse by his “affection-averse” deadbeat dad.

LaBeouf himself has opened up about his troubled past and his family’s history of substance abuse before.

“When you’re 10 years old and watch your father going through heroin withdrawals, you grow up real fast,” he said in an interview with The Orange County Register. “You become the parent in the relationship. But I must give [Jeffrey LaBeouf] credit because he always told me that he didn’t want me to be like him.”

The film’s director, Alma Har’el, told The Wrap that LaBeouf has “done the bravest thing anyone could do” by depicting his own father and called Honey Boy an “artistic exorcism” for all involved.

“Obviously we all went through a lot of deep feelings while making the film, but nothing was too much. Everything was accepted. Whenever the demons came, we danced with them.”

View the original article at thefix.com

31 January 2019
Inmates With Mental Health Issues Kept After Release Dates, Lawsuit Alleges

“Our clients are told, often on the day they expect to be released from prison, that they will not be leaving and must stay until community housing is located,” said the executive director of Disability Rights New York.

In theory, MG is not in prison. His release date was in May 2017.

And yet, every day he wakes up in a windowless cell in the Auburn Correctional Facility. He wears green prison clothes, stands for count and identifies himself by the seven-digit number emblazoned on his shirt.

That’s because MG is mentally ill and bound for community-based mental health housing—but there’s no space. So instead, the New York prison system has kept him, locking him up even after his sentence has technically ended.

But MG isn’t the only prisoner held long past the expiration of his sentence. That’s why the Legal Aid Society and Disability Rights New York last week filed a class action lawsuit against the state’s prison system, the New York State Office of Mental Health, the prison system and Governor Andrew Cuomo, claiming violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act and demanding that the state come up with better mental health housing options.

“Our clients are told, often on the day they expect to be released from prison, that they will not be leaving and must stay until community housing is located,” said Timothy Clune, executive director of Disability Rights New York. “Further, documents produced by the Defendants show that New York State is well aware of the shortage of mental health housing for this population. Instead of addressing this shortage the State has been ignoring the problem and our clients.”

The six prisoners at the center of the new federal lawsuit are all mentally ill and at risk of homelessness, so the state decided they should be sent to supportive housing. But right now there isn’t enough, and when that happens, officials instead transfer prisoners like MG to one of 13 “residential treatment facilities”—all of which are in medium and maximum security prisons.

In effect, according to the lawsuit, the prison system is lengthening their sentences because they’re mentally ill, in the process “undermining the most basic principle undergirding the criminal justice system: that a criminal sentence, once imposed by a judge, means what it says.”

The state hasn’t responded in court to the legal claim just yet, and an Office of Mental Health official said they hadn’t been formally notified when reporters first started asking for comment.

“This lawsuit was served to the media before it was served to us, so we can’t comment on its details,” spokeswoman Jessica Riley told The Albany Times-Union. “However, New York funds one of the most robust supportive housing networks in the nation for individuals with mental illness.”

The state pours nearly $500 million a year into community-based housing for people with serious mental illness. Currently, that funds around 44,000 housing units statewide, and there’s plans to have 6,000 more online by 2021.

The other men in the lawsuit have stories similar to MG’s.

CJ, who has bipolar disorder, was supposed to get out of prison in September 2017—but he’s still locked up in the Green Haven unit in Stormville, according to the legal filing. He got a GED and vocational certificate during his time behind bars, and had hoped to get a job and rebuild a life for himself near his family in Orange County. Instead, he’s spent the past year-and-a-half in and out of barren psychiatric observation cells where he’s been put on suicide watch after repeatedly telling prison staff he’d rather die than stay in prison.

MJ, who also has bipolar disorder, expected to get out in June 2018, according to court papers. Instead, he too was sent to Green Haven, where he’s been put in solitary twice for rules infractions—even though he shouldn’t be in prison to begin with.

JR has depressive disorder and post-traumatic stress. He’s repeatedly attempted to harm himself, and he should already be out of prison—but he’s still at the Fishkill Correctional Facility in Beacon. Prison staff have already asked him to sign release papers and told him he’s considered a parolee instead of an inmate, even though he’s still in prison, the suit claims.

DR, who has bipolar disorder, was slated for release in December 2017.

Yet, he’s still being held at the Fishkill facility, the suit alleges. He proposed living with his aunt, but officials denied him and insisted that he must wait for community-based mental health housing to open up, according to the federal claim.

It’s stories like these that prompted the legal advocates to file suit. They’re asking for class status; an order declaring the state’s actions unconstitutional; money for lawyers’ fees; and a permanent injunction forcing the state to make sufficient housing available and to come up with a better plan for mentally ill inmates in the future.

It’s not part of their requested relief but, as the suit notes: “Plaintiffs want to be free from prison.”

View the original article at thefix.com

29 January 2019
How The Mediterranean Diet Affects Mental Health

A new study found that certain foods correlated with better moods.

The old saying “you are what you eat” could ring true for people with depression, according to a recent scientific review, which found that eating a Mediterranean diet can reduce the risk of depression by as much as a third.

According to ABC 30, researchers analyzed 41 studies that looked at how food affected people’s moods. The researchers found that people who ate Mediterranean diets were 33% less likely to be depressed.

Mediterranean diets place an emphasis on eating fruits, vegetables, legumes and other plants, according to Healthline. The diet encourages eating fish over red meat and—perhaps most importantly for mental health—incorporates plenty of healthy fats, like those found in olive oil and nuts.

“Especially the omega three fatty acids—those are known to have pretty clear effects with depression,” said Charles Conway, a researcher at Washington University in St. Louis. Conway has researched more modern approaches to treating depression, including vagus nerve stimulation, but found that one’s diet is still important for mental health.

The researchers found that certain foods correlated with better moods, including avocados, berries, tomatoes, leafy greens, walnuts, seeds, and beans. Many of these are part of a Mediterranean diet.

However, foods that are associated with a modern Western diet could make depression symptoms worse or increase the risk of depression. These include processed foods, sugar and artificial sweeteners, and saturated fats.

Omega-3 fatty acids have long been associated with brain health and boosting one’s mood. A 2014 review found that people who consume these “good fats” are less likely to be depressed.

“Among the biological properties of omega-3 PUFA, their anti-inflammatory effects and their important role on the structural changing of the brain should be taken into account to better understand the possible pathway through which they can be effective both in preventing or treating depression,” study authors wrote.

The authors concluded that there needs to be a better understanding of how to integrate these healthy fats into a Western diet.

“The problem of how to correct the inadequate supply of omega-3 PUFA in the Westernized countries’ diet is a priority in order to set food and health policies and also dietary recommendations for individuals and population groups,” they wrote.

In addition to eating a healthy diet, Conway said that exercising is also an effective way to reduce your risk of depression and control symptoms.

“Pushing yourself to exercise regularly probably helps with some degree of mood improvement,” he said.

View the original article at thefix.com

28 January 2019
Addiction or Mental Illness: Which Should You Treat First?

Substance use can alter behaviors, moods, and personalities so severely for people with addiction that without specialized knowledge and experience, it’s difficult to determine underlying causes such as mental illness or trauma.

I credit psychological intervention for pushing me into recovery from alcoholism.

Addiction is a mental illness, but is it one that needs to be treated before anything else? Or should we be stopping people from hitting their addiction bottom and helping them recover from their comorbid conditions concurrently?

What Is Addiction?

Before we can discuss treatment, we need to understand what addiction is and how it is defined. The two major guidelines for diagnosing mental health conditions around the world are the DSM and the ICD. The DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) is the standard diagnostic tool for mental health conditions in the United States and often used in North America. The ICD (International Classification of Diseases) is endorsed by the World Health Organization and often used in Europe.

In the DSM-5, substance abuse and substance dependence are combined under the same name of substance use disorder, which is diagnosed on a continuum. Each substance has its own sub-category, but behavioral addiction is also in the DSM-5, with gambling disorder listed as a diagnosable condition. Other similar entries, such as internet gaming disorder, are listed as needing further research before being formally added as a diagnosis. In the ICD-11 there is a subset of mood disorders called “substance-induced mood disorders,” which are conditions caused by substance use. To qualify for this category, one must not have experienced the mood disorder symptoms prior to substance use.

Hypothetically, a person who has alcohol-induced mood disorder might find health with abstinence alone, but substance use disorders do not occur in a vacuum and no one can go through the experience of addiction without it altering their mind and body, sometimes irreversibly. With enough time, substance-induced disorders change the function of the brain and alter emotion regulation. That doesn’t mean that addiction will cause another mental disorder; addiction is a mental disorder.

Not everyone with an addiction is concurrently experiencing another mental disorder. Substance use can alter behaviors, moods, and personalities so severely for people who are addicted that without specialized knowledge and experience, it’s difficult to determine what, if any, underlying cause is responsible for the changes. Drugs, even those that are prescribed and used as directed, can have side effects that seem to mimic the symptoms of other diagnosable conditions. These effects can also appear if a person is in withdrawal. Because of this inability to isolate co-occurring conditions, there was a time when it was popular for doctors and clinicians to first treat substance use disorders before exploring the possibility of other mental illnesses. That is no longer considered the best approach to care.

My Story: Therapy Helped Me Recognize My Alcoholism

I started therapy before I could realize my excessive drinking was actually alcoholism. I was riddled with anxiety and constantly on edge. I lied compulsively about the most unnecessary and mundane things. My partner helped me start therapy, calling the first point of contact for me and taking me to my first two appointments, and then patiently waiting outside for me. He wasn’t enabling me by keeping me from hitting bottom, he was supporting me and protecting me in a loving way; in a way that worked.

In the early days of therapy, my psychologist gently guided me towards recognizing my alcohol use as problematic. My therapist convinced me to go to a psychiatrist who started me on antidepressants and gave me anti-anxiety medication to use when needed. My treatment was moving forward, but I was still drinking. I spent most therapy sessions crying, but my ability to live day to day was slowly changing.

I was Googling local 12-step meetings while hungover and then deleting my search history while drinking. I was taking my medications but still getting drunk on the regular. I had to do some work on my crippling anxiety and debilitating depression to get to the point that I could even fathom walking into a new space with new people. I drank because alcohol made it easier to have fun and to talk to people. I was living with undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcohol worked to calm symptoms like hyperarousal and insomnia. I was using alcohol to cope with issues that my shame wanted to keep buried and my therapy wanted to draw forth. It took nearly nine months of therapy before I quit drinking.

Once I was able to cross that threshold, things really began to change for me. My medication was able to work as intended because I wasn’t combining it with other mood-altering substances, and my therapeutic work could go deeper because I wasn’t self-medicating with alcohol. I gained tools to manage my mental health challenges. My alcoholism treatment has gone so well because I have concurrently received care for my comorbid conditions.

Integrated Treatment

That’s just one personal story of recovery and successful treatment of co-occurring mental illnesses. But it turns out that’s actually the best treatment: individualized integrated care. In the book The Anatomy of Addiction, Dr. Akikur Mohammad writes that the “best approach to treating a dual diagnosis…is…integrating mental health and addiction treatment in a single, comprehensive program designed to meet the individual needs of the specific patient.” How do we determine a patient’s needs? According to Dr. Mohammad, “the best diagnostic instrument is the clinician’s experience in treating addiction.”

How many times have you heard the adage: “You have to let an addict hit bottom”? If you take a seat in any 12-step recovery meeting, you’ll likely hear someone speaking about their own experience hitting bottom. The idea is that one must reach a point of complete and utter desperation before being able to start recovery. Being desperate enough to change because your life is wretchedly entwined with addiction makes for a good story, but waiting to fall into such desperation doesn’t make for a solid treatment plan. The evidence base supports this view, but people don’t necessarily believe it.

Generally, public views about drug addiction are incongruent with current medical knowledge on the disease. A 2014 study that surveyed over 700 adults across the country found that the majority of Americans hold stigmatized views. Forty-three percent of those surveyed said they oppose giving people with drug addiction equivalent insurance benefits compared to 21 percent who believe the same about those with mental illness. Half of all respondents were against increased government spending for treatment of drug addiction, compared to 33 percent for mental illness. About a third of folks don’t believe recovery is even possible for someone with either a drug addiction or a mental illness. And the number of people who believe that treatment options are not effective? Fifty-nine percent for drug addiction and 41 percent for mental illness.

Consequences of Discrimination Against People with SUD

These public opinions have real world consequences. They translate into low support for policies that could provide equal insurance coverage and policies that could allocate government funds into public health programs to improve the success rate of (and access to) evidence-based treatment. Drug addiction or substance use disorder (SUD) is a mental illness, but in the United States it’s treated as distinct from mental illness as a whole.

Did I hit bottom? In retrospect, I find solace in the narrative that I hit “my” bottom. That’s the problem with the notion of rock bottom, it is a storytelling plot point that can only be defined in hindsight. Not even the precepts of Alcoholics Anonymous (the original peer support program that all 12-step groups are derived from) says that a person needs to hit rock bottom. According to the 12 Traditions, which are the general guidelines for 12-step groups, “The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop [fill in behavior or addiction here].”

One thing is undeniable: people with real or perceived substance use and/or mental disorders face discrimination and an uphill battle to a healthier life. Everyone is different, and different treatment plans will have different outcomes for different people. Relying on one method of recovery for all people is irresponsible, illogical, and ineffective.

View the original article at thefix.com

28 January 2019