Addicts Will Get The Help They Need When America Stops Stigmatizing Drug Abuse; It's A Mental Illness, Not A 'Moral Failing'
By Stephanie Castillo | Oct 4, 2014
Though drug abuse and mental illness are both (sadly) attached to stigma, it’s the drugs Americans are unwilling to forgive. A majority of people are of the opinion drug addiction is a “moral failing,” not a medical condition — an opinon a new study published in Psychiatric Services found only exacerbates the number of drug-related deaths each year.
Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore surveyed 709 people about their attitudes toward either mental illness or drug addiction — questions varied from stigma to treatment. Researchers found that only 22 percent of respondents said they were willing to work closely with someone with drug addiction, while 62 percent would work with someone with mental illness. Some went as far as to say (probably before leaving to shop at Hobby Lobby) that employers should be able to deny employment to people with drug addiction, though not with mental illness. Yet, as far as recovery is concerned, about three out of 10 of the total respondents agree it's impossible.
"The more shame associated with drug addiction, the less likely we as a community will be in a position to change attitudes and get people the help they need," said Beth McGinty, study co-author and an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins, in a press release. "If you can educate the public that these are treatable conditions, we will see higher levels of support for policy changes that benefit people with mental illness and drug addiction."
Here’s the thing: drug abuse is often symptomatic of mental illness. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), “compared with the general population, people addicted to drugs are roughly twice as likely to suffer from mood and anxiety disorders, with the reverse also true.” NIDA explained that this does not mean one causes the other or one appeared first, just that they've been found to feed each other. Additionally, there is science that shows addiction, whether it's of drugs or alcohol, significantly changes a person’s brain. These changes result in compulsive behaviors that weaken a person’s self-control, qualifying all of it as a complex, chronic brain disease. A disease the United Nations found kills upwards of 200,000 people each year worldwide.
Continued here http://www.medicaldaily.com/addicts...ops-stigmatizing-drug-abuse-its-mental-306251
By Stephanie Castillo | Oct 4, 2014
Though drug abuse and mental illness are both (sadly) attached to stigma, it’s the drugs Americans are unwilling to forgive. A majority of people are of the opinion drug addiction is a “moral failing,” not a medical condition — an opinon a new study published in Psychiatric Services found only exacerbates the number of drug-related deaths each year.
Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore surveyed 709 people about their attitudes toward either mental illness or drug addiction — questions varied from stigma to treatment. Researchers found that only 22 percent of respondents said they were willing to work closely with someone with drug addiction, while 62 percent would work with someone with mental illness. Some went as far as to say (probably before leaving to shop at Hobby Lobby) that employers should be able to deny employment to people with drug addiction, though not with mental illness. Yet, as far as recovery is concerned, about three out of 10 of the total respondents agree it's impossible.
"The more shame associated with drug addiction, the less likely we as a community will be in a position to change attitudes and get people the help they need," said Beth McGinty, study co-author and an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins, in a press release. "If you can educate the public that these are treatable conditions, we will see higher levels of support for policy changes that benefit people with mental illness and drug addiction."
Here’s the thing: drug abuse is often symptomatic of mental illness. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), “compared with the general population, people addicted to drugs are roughly twice as likely to suffer from mood and anxiety disorders, with the reverse also true.” NIDA explained that this does not mean one causes the other or one appeared first, just that they've been found to feed each other. Additionally, there is science that shows addiction, whether it's of drugs or alcohol, significantly changes a person’s brain. These changes result in compulsive behaviors that weaken a person’s self-control, qualifying all of it as a complex, chronic brain disease. A disease the United Nations found kills upwards of 200,000 people each year worldwide.
Continued here http://www.medicaldaily.com/addicts...ops-stigmatizing-drug-abuse-its-mental-306251
