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"Mental illness is caused (primarily) by drug use"

dopamimetic said:
I guess main problem is that for some- I can't tell numbers here - it is only a temporary fix and afterwards one problem replaced with another, if lucky, or an additional problem acquired while the initial ones relapsing.

Really I had so much hope in the dissociatives and while it had worked for pretty long, maybe could have been many years if I had known and felt this knowledge that I have today. That it's an one shot thing and tolerance will kill it maybe forever, turn the miracle into an addiction and me to getting a script for morphine.

I see former drug addicts to become anti drug hardheads, something I don't like and still think I have learned much that no therapist ever could have taught me but was it worth the price (said addiction, increased risk for psychosis maybe, who knows what else) and certainly by abusing nmda antags for escaping reality instead of medical aids I threw perls in front of pigs (some German idiom for loosing sth valuable by not appreciating it).

At last they forget what they have gone though, it's legitimate to regret but not to damn others for the same one has done and demand continued criminalization of them.

Just really wish that war on drugs never started, Yeah as you say some substances were used for thousands of years but now should be Pure Evil™. Good statement about self medication. Just maybe from. time to time it is self medicating for self-aid skills previously lost to the very same substance(s). It is very difficult to differenciate here and I don't think that ability to be widespread among some psychiatrists seeing abuse and weak personality every where. Even with the latter now being called by Politically Correct Names™.
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Ja, like the Russian proverb about if one is a hammer everything looks like a nail.

I can say that I concur with William S Burroughs in that , at least amongst single-agent or predominant morphine unsupervised users, medical habitués and classical addicts and those for other narcotics with the exception of the benzomorphans like pentazocine, cyclazocine, dezocine, phenazocine, &c to varying degrees, he found the number of psychotics and the like to be vanishingly small to non-existent, saying that narcotics folks are, down pretty much to the last person, "drearily sane" as he wrote in a letter in 1956 to the British Journal of Addiction which appears as an appendix in several editions of Junky and at least one of The Naked Lunch. I know that the fact that I always did my due diligence and took the initiative to compare notes with a several AODA experts including a cousin working at university on her PhD who lived with me and 25-32 family, friends, associates, a couple of attic room renters &c in two big houses next to each other at the time (so there was no possibility that I was pulling a fast one on the doctors then going home and cutting loose and running from hallucinations of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man, for instance) every so often and suggested that my GP refer me for a comprehensive psychological and neurological workup before I was first put on round-the-clock hydrocodone for chronic pain in the US in the 1980s made things a lot easier than they would have been for the average patient, even with being on narcotics all the way up to dextromoramide, oxymorphone, and dihydromorphine inter alia for two decades in Canada and Europe and codeine and dihydrocodeine prn in the US before then. I think that this effect of narcotics is what doctors are striving for in using gabapentinoids as anti-psychotics and strong anxiolytics. It can work, but there is nothing like the real McCoy.
 
Mental illness is often caused by genetics and traumatic life events or other major adversarial events especially if they are early events and more than one event. But it is made much worse by drugs, eg. alcohol, opiates, amphetamines, benzos, etc because the drugs make one feel temporarily better but reality strikes again once the drugs wear off. Some corticosteroids can actually trigger mental illness by fucking up your hormones, but that's a topic for another discussion.
 
thegreenhand said:
And then how to define trauma
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Not as easy as it seems...but to start, perhaps something that had a really severe adverse effect on an emotional level. Trauma can be caused by so many different things. My own recent trauma was caused by something that one could clearly identify as being gut wrenching, but nonetheless for some people trauma can be non-specific and caused by a difficult childhood, marriage difficulties, etc. Any adverse life event can cause mental illness if the genetics of the person experiencing those events predispose that person to developing the illness.
 
Pretty much everything relevant was stated in this thread. I am just going to chim in some extra information for those who are interested.

How do mental illnesses develop?

Example: Biopsychosocial model

Biopsychosocial_Model_of_Health_1.png

Wikipedia: Biopsychosocialmodel. Wikipedia. Retrieved August 29, 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biopsychosocial_model

There are three relevant categories for development of diseases:

1. Biological component:
- physical health
- genetic vulnerabilities
- drug effects

2. Social component:
- peer group
- social circumstances
- family relationships

3. Psychological component:
- coping skills
- social skills
- family relationsships
- self-esteem
- mental health

Those three categories interact with each other and can lead to the development of mental diseases if certain factors are reached. Trauma can affect all of those categories in a negative way. The diathesis-stress model shows how those three factors can lead to symptoms of mental illness if a certain level of stress is reached:

Example: Diathesis-stress model

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diathesis–stress_model#/media/File:Diathesis_stress_model_graph.svg
Blacktc: Biopsychosocialmodel. Wikipedia. Retrieved August 29, 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diathesis–stress_model

The red graph is the line between showing no symptoms of mental disease and symptoms of mental diseases. The green curve shows the permanent level of stress (chronic). Trauma would be a significant factor for a higher level of chronic stress. The yellow-brown pillars are standing for acute stress like drug use. If the yellow-brown pillars are above the red line symptoms of mental diseases will show. If the green line is higher it takes less current stressful life events (like divorce) to trigger symptoms like depression. All of the three major factors of the biopsychosocial model previously described can lead to changes in the green curve or/ and yellow-brown pillars meaning in a positive (ressources, protective factors) or negative (no ressorces, risk factors) way.

These are two well established models used to explain the development of diseases but it can't be said for certain that these are universally correct. In a few years there maybe a better undestanding of the complex interactions of the human mind and therefor such simplistic methods have to be looked at with caution.
[Sources]: Wikipedia and visiting a university.
 
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Mostly trauma, abuse and neglect of varied degrees. Although in recent years the study of epigenetics has gained momentum, there's been a lot of research over the years of how future generations of WWII survivors are experiencing symptoms of trauma due to gene mutations. I recommend to anyone interested in mental health and trauma to read this book It Didn't Start With You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle by Mark Wolynn. I wouldn't be surprised if most of our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents experienced some form of trauma which is imprinted in our genes, so some of us maybe more susceptible to developing depression, anxiety, drug and alcohol dependency, suicidality etc if triggered by a negative experience. There's a well known poem by Philip Larkin, the first line of the poem is "They fuck you up, your mum and dad. ".

 
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thegreenhand said:
And then how to define trauma
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Same as the word ''why'', you ask yourself but it's a telltale confusing goin on. I also think over-thinkin it's the major issues of many ppl but lookin at major events around the globe -- for account the ''Chernobyl'' disaster and you look at those people, mostly really look normal. There's videos around and you can explore YouTube as much as you can.
 
Usually when a thread is revived after three years, it's by a new user who adds little to the discussion and creates an annoying situation. Surprisingly, then, Nicomorphinist is a regular and has posted some interesting info.
Nicomorphinist said:
Much drug use is self-medication I agree, and it is self-medication because the medication works and narcotics like morphine and opium were used by doctors to treat depression and anxiety and related issues well into living memory more or less all around the world . . . so opioid narcotic analgesics also help manage mental illness, not cause it . . . and the development of withdrawal symptoms is an acquired metabolic disorder and I am sure even cave men and women knew how to medicate it . . . probably animals as well . . .
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I would agree that opioids generally do not cause mental illness other than opioid dependence; depression/anxiety following opioid use is probably best interpreted as a persistent withdrawal symptom.

However, I would disagree with the suggestion that opioids help manage mental illness, because one key idea in managing mental illness is the restoration of normal functioning. But opioids blunt negative emotions, which isn't normal, and furthermore, opioids seem to "manage" mental illness by making unpleasant symptoms bearable; a schizophrenic on heroin may hear voices but they're pleasant, an autistic may be overstimulated but they don't mind, et cetera. Furthermmore, the deleterious effects of opioids on motivation generally aren't consistent with what we usually expect from "management". It would be better to say that opioids provide symptomatic relief from mental illness, rather than "managing" or "treating".

There is a theory that some tobacco smokers are self-medicating schizophrenia and related issues and I would hope so
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Unfortunately, while nicotine itself seems to have some positive effects on schizophrenia, cigarettes as a whole are associated with worse outcomes because schizophrenia symptoms tend to be influenced by the metabolic state and stability of the patient, and the damage done to the body by smoking is inimical to metabolic stability -- smoking reduces the capacity for exercise, weakens the body's ability to control blood sugar, increases resting blood pressure, disrupts the sleep cycle and decreases the ability of the lungs to absorb oxygen -- all can contribute to the mental stress that precipitates symptoms in schizophrenia.

Perhaps most importantly, smoking is associated with decreased Parkinson-like side effects of neuroleptic medication, which may be a key reason for smoking among schizophrenics:

APA PsycNet

psycnet.apa.org psycnet.apa.org

It would seem that nearly 100 per cent of unsupervised benzodiazepine use is self-medicating for something since by definition benzos are psych meds.
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Anxiety is normal, anxiety disorders are not. A healthy person may take Xanax to relieve anxiety, but that doesn't mean that they need it or are "medicating". A close analogy might be the use of growth hormones to treat pituitary dwarfism vs. the (illegal) use of growth hormones on healthy teenagers to increase height. It is not a goal nor should it be to use anti-anxiety medication to prevent people from ever experiencing anxiety.
 
Staying in your trails thinkng a mental illlness is caused only by chemical imbalanve proves itself wrong as soon as you réalisé some people live with half a brain just fine.i think that Mental illness is a spiritual matter of a state of mind in which the person reside,, and that glows trough the person's social and physical action patterns. They Can be caused by drug-use, and drug use often leads to New introspective discoveries for the user and his surroundings which are, the experie'ce itself being what is the cause of a ressurgence of a new or pre-existing mental "dis-ease" as in an unwanted change that will play a rôle as factoes of later illness. Taking more drugs could actually cure that, by helping tbe brain to ré:expérience what caused profound changes and develop tolérance to these vectors's influence noir mental state, to at least becomz more familiar with thé asszssing and handeling of what causes disease.

Gaffy
 
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What a dumb ass thread. You made a demonstrably false claim without any evidence to back it up, so there's nothing to debate here. No doubt mental illnesses can be caused or brought about by drug usage, but saying that is the sole cause is beyond absurd.
 
mp44god said:
What a dumb ass thread. You made a demonstrably false claim without any evidence to back it up, so there's nothing to debate here. No doubt mental illnesses can be caused or brought about by drug usage, but saying that is the sole cause is beyond absurd.
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Yeah it's nonsense. And apparently the original poster thought it was a subject of advanced nature that warranted being posted in this subforum.

Drug abuse generally doesn't cause novel or organic psychiatric disorders that didn't already exist or were not going to occur on their own. The most common exception is in the case of stimulants such as methamphetamine and cocaine (crack in particular) which in some occasions may induce a syndrome that would have likely never manifested organically when abused very heavily. Some severe cases more resemble brain damage than psychiatric syndromes.

Drug abuse is highly comorbid in the mentally ill but thats about it. Drug abuse can precipitate, worsen and in some cases induce psychiatric disorders.

Overall, psychiatric disorders are not really causes by drug abuse, nor are they "spiritual disorders" as someone suggested nor are they necessarily "chemical imbalances" per say (but the last one is alot closer).
 
I'm sure this has already been addressed, but quite frankly the idea that drug use causes mental illness is categorically false.

If anything, mental illness leads to drug use - which is largely supported by research into the topic.
 
Psychiatric illnesses have endless co-morbidities associated with drug use, but in the overall scheme of things, psychiatric illnesses cause a lot more incidences of drug abuse than drug abuse causes psychiatric illness.
A significant percentage of the population use drugs without ever becoming 'mental patients'. On the other hand, enter any psychiatric ward and a hell of a lot of patients will have some sort of drug co-morbidity...
 
Mental illnesses are complex, and "addiction" is a form of a compulsive disorder.

Not to be confused with personality disorders, particularly those in Cluster B. Narcissistic, borderline, and antisocial personality disordered individuals are highly prone to substance abuse. Up to 78% of those with borderline personality disorder and 74% of those with antisocial personality disorder have a substance abuse or gambling problem, depending on study. By contrast, 70-80% of chronic drug abusers or gamblers aren't personality disordered.

Cluster A personality disorders can also be prone to drug abuse.
 

Above are four booklets on 'Drugs and Mental Health' Published by Linnell Publications (Formally of Lifeline). It's based on the hundreds of clients that we helped who ran into mental health issues due to drug use. No two cases are the same but 'dual diagnosis' i.e. drug use coupled with mental health problems accounted for 40% of the people we helped.

The questions is always 'did drug use CAUSE mental health problems' OR 'were people self-medicating a mental health issue'. It still is not clear. There is an association - no direct link is proven.
 
Xorkoth said:
@Nicomorphinist I don't know if I've said this to you before, but your knowledge of opioids and organic chemistry is really impressive, thanks making so many quality posts, I learn something from pretty much every one. :)
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I wonder what happened to him... I miss reading his fascinating posts. The dude had quite a bit of knowledge about various interesting topics. He really knew about pharna stuff. What a bummer he hasn't logged in 2 years :(
 
Using Alcohol and/or Drugs Problematically Is Actually An Actual MENTAL ILLNESS In And Of Itself. However, Medications AND Recreational Drugs Have Proved Me Invaluable Since Time Immemorial.
 
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