NEWS: Drugs linked to mental health crisis

[killarava2day]

Drugs linked to mental health crisis
By Meaghan Shaw
Canberra
August 26, 2004


Urgent action on mental illness is needed due to widespread drug use among young people that is putting pressure on poorly funded and inadequate state mental health services, Australia's human rights watchdog said yesterday.

Human Rights Commissioner Sev Ozdowski called for Federal Government leadership to sort out the problem and put the issue on the national agenda.

Dr Ozdowski and the Mental Health Council of Australia have been hearing many stories of neglect from around Australia as they prepare a report due by the end of the year. It comes 11 years after the Human Rights Commission published the landmark Burdekin report on mental health, which led to the closure of many institutions and a move towards community-based care.

Dr Ozdowski said there was evidence that widespread use of common drugs such as cannabis was leading to increased mental illness among young people.

He likened drug usage to playing Russian roulette: "Nothing may happen to you, but you may be sick for the rest of your life."
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A lack of services to deal with combined drug addiction and mental illness could lead to a loss of at least 20 years' life expectancy, he said.

Dr Ozdowski said consultations highlighted an absence of early intervention programs, young people admitted to inappropriate adult facilities and overburdened and inaccessible emergency departments.

He said there was also a pattern of underspending, with Australia spending only 7 per cent of its health budget on mental health, compared with 10 to 14 per cent in other developed countries. New Zealand spends twice as much per capita as Australia.

"This is often a tragic tale of medical neglect and community indifference," he said. "Those with a mental health illness are still being blamed for being sick."

Mental Health Council chairman Keith Wilson said Dr Ozdowski's comments reflected the views of many families, front-line health professionals and police, who were left to fill the gap. "There is absolute neglect of these people," he said. "They are not a high political priority."

Beyondblue chairman Jeff Kennett said while it was not "all doom and gloom", helping those with mental illness had to be made a higher priority.

The former Victorian premier has lobbied the Federal Government and the Opposition and is "waiting with bated breath" to see if either party includes it during the election campaign.

"You've got about 2.3 million people every year who are... affected by people with depression," he said. "So it is a huge voting force.

 

[killarava2day]

He likened drug usage to playing Russian roulette: "Nothing may happen to you, but you may be sick for the rest of your life."

Huh??? Most meaningless statement of the year 8)

 

[PULS8R]

fucked up, the whole drug thing needs an overhaul.

 

[jay1234]

Huh??? Most meaningless statement of the year 8)

i disagree nothing may happen to you but in the sense you still eat, drink, breath, live, etc. but what if u take some drugs at a young age which alters what you think is normal for the rest of your life?

for example when i smoke weed i can get paranoid and anti social. i started smoking weed back in high school i was around 15~16 years old and i was always a very shy person at that age. i smoked weed all the way through high school till i was 18 where i got sick of it, as soon as i stoped smoking weed i wasn't such a shy paranoid person anymore, better yet i had confidence!

i had no idea that the weed was making me anti social and paranoid... i thought that was how i was all the time.

nowadays im still smoke weed every now and then and i do notice the change in myself. its kind of like im two different people even around familiar faces, anti social & paranoid jay(to the point that i don't talk), then we have confident and carefree jay(to the point that i wont shut up!)

 

[Cactii]

kilaraver , i have a few friends who wont ever be the same after taking a few too many drugs. Now they live in a delusional world of paranoia. It does happen and it can at any time.

 

[shal]

After 4 Years of constant recreational Ecstasy and Amphetamine usage I now suffer extremely bad anxiety which effects my day to day life. Irrational thinking, fear of impending doom. Very silly things which would never have effected me before.

I don't blame drugs for causing this, as it was my choice to do those drugs, however I certainly think they have contributed to my current mental state. It's suprising that I feel the anxiety all happened after one event. I was fine, and then oneday, I changed. I remeber that day. I remember from that day onwards I was never the same again.

I don't tell others not to to do drugs. Let them make an informed decision. Mental health now I've realised is really precious. To be able to think straight and live without fear, that is in the past for me.

Today it's simply about learning to manage the damage done.

Use it, Abuse it, Loose it!


shals :D

 

[Sllip]

^^^^
But by the same rational I also have 4 years of recreational drug use which at times has been pretty extreme, had weekends that have ranged from taking nothing right through the spectrum to having a psychotic episode.

Yet I'm still a well adjusted and normal person. Well no more a loose cannon then I was before.

 

[Christian Soldier]

"Dr Ozdowski said there was evidence that widespread use of common drugs such as cannabis was leading to increased mental illness among young people."

Good article, yes a lot of the youngens should be more aware of the mental health implications things like cronic cannabis use can cause. I've known a lot of people who have weed addictions, along with really bad paranoia, and this destroys their life, they need beable to feel like they can get help. Very underrated drug with kids, weed did more damage to me then heroin, meth, coke or any other 'hard' drugs you can name.

And these are very good points that need to be taken heed:

"This is often a tragic tale of medical neglect and community indifference," he said. "Those with a mental health illness are still being blamed for being sick."

"Beyondblue chairman Jeff Kennett said while it was not "all doom and gloom", helping those with mental illness had to be made a higher priority."

 

[Leprechaun]

I started in 1998. I was 18, on and off use of a wide array of substances. Still the same old me... Sort of. I have changed a bit, I have been studying for the same amount of time with the same steady high marks. Have also had a job throughout that time.

The only negative change I think is that I feel a bit over all of it. Time for a change. I recently just got over a bad anxiety period after my hopefully last ever ingestion of Amphetamine.

I still look forward to many more great altered times and states in the future.

It seems to me people are overreacting a bit to all of this. Its not too bad, everything changes and nothing lasts forever... Even in the darkest and most depressing of times you still have the peace of your last breath to look forward to. However if you do make it through that than life will surely be better.

I have had anxiety on and off for a while, so does everyone else I know. Big deal, stress is a part of life and sometimes its drugs that put things over the edge.

The whole drug war has really lost its point.

I don't see people making war illegal. Now thats nuts, murder, rape, limbs gone missing and much, much more suffering.

I do agree though, that if you spend more time on drugs then off. Something is wrong, whether its your place in the community, what is available to you and what opportunities you have etc...

Here are some references:
http://www.theexperiment.org/articles.php?news_id=1441
http://members.aol.com/Thales97/tyranny.htm
http://stuartbuck.blogspot.com/2004/06/legalize-drugs.html

I could go on forever. Thankfully there are more and more articles on such topics, hopefully the government and general mainstream position will shift to a more rational approach to drug use and hopefully prevent overly great abuse that leads to a persons disconnection with their family and community.

 

[Cyberdyne]

in regards to > "Dr Ozdowski said there was evidence that widespread use of common drugs such as cannabis was leading to increased mental illness among young people." I'd like to know precisely what they mean by mental illness. Is addiction said to be a mental illness in and of itself? If so I would have to agree with everything thats been said but I would strongly deny that it is a serious problem facing government, but rather, one facing society and is outside the sphere of legitimate state intervention.

If, on the other hand, cannabis use has been empirically linked to condiitons like depression and schizophrenia I would love to see the study. For me this is quite literally the only card that can be raised in support of cannabis prohibition. w/o it the entire harm network falls away and their becomes nothign to 'protect our children' from.

Of course, there is the slight problem that this study would seem to suggest it has been conducted on users of multiple different drugs and the potential for error escalates. Im sure we are all familiar with amphetamines propensity to cause long term severe paranoid schizophrenia and if anybody here doubts hallucinogenics ability to cause mental illness then they are most silly. The of course there is the old cause/caused debate to ad to that uncertainty.

If people want to go out there and throw 'cannabis causes mental illness' out there in the political spotlight, I wanna know PRECISELY what thats based on b/c to the best of my knowledge, and that extends to at very least around about 2000 in terms of official studies, there has been nothing even remotely conclusive or even particularly convincing that suggests this is the case. Its called science dickheads...till you got a controlled experiment keep your spin and assumption the fuck outta my face.

says I.
(er, the dickheads Im referring to are the politicians (?) espousign this shiz)

 

[quiet roar]

^^^ Agree Cyberdyne.

I think we need to realise that people who are depressed or have some other mental problems may have started taking drugs because of their unhappy state, and would have gotten worse with drugs or not (although I do admit drugs would probably quicken the process).

Does Jamaica have an overwhelming amount of people with depression?

 

[Christian Soldier]

Actually now that you mention it. I don't think addiction can be considered a mental illness. I've only heard of it being referred as a mental disorder. Any other thoughts?

Disorder - An ailment that affects the function of mind or body: eating disorders and substance abuse.

Illness - 1. Poor health resulting from disease of body or mind; sickness.
2. A disease.

 

[Leprechaun]

From what I have read even severe amphetamine psychosis usually clears up in around a month or so.

With most debilitating symptoms relieved after a week of abstinence from meth-amphetamine.

However, long term changes and depression can last a few months after usage has ceased. Unlike heroin, amphetamine does not have a high likely hood for relapse.

Heroin use does not really precipitate any paranoid disorders, though it may cause very strong withdrawl symptoms.

http://www.drugtext.org/library/books/recreationaldrugs/amphetamines.htm
http://www.erowid.org/experiences/exp.php?ID=2569
http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/amphetamines/amphetamines_effects.shtml

 

[Leprechaun]

Just wanted to add this to those avid meth users:

Abstinence, the key to cure, is often almost impossible because of the strong psychological dependence acquired. Contrary to the official medical establishment's original opinion, amphetamines are addicting-but psychologically, not physically. Amphetamine addicts outnumber heroin addicts. by ten to one. The damage they inflict on both them selves and others is far out of proportion to that resulting from other drugs:

 

[mrephedrine69]

Marijuana is well known as a trigger of schizophrenia. I have had an Uncle whom this happened to. Very sad. I personally found marijuana eventually caused me severe anxiety. Daily use for many years was to blame. The anxiety got so severe that in the end I had one cone and my heart rate hit 220 bpm. My arms and legs tingled and I thought I was going to have a heart attack. Thank god dope's well and truly in the past.

I ask though, does anyone have a slight hazy feeling in the head sometimes that you can't really put a finger on. I'm not saying that your not as smart (proved that to myself with 2 IQ tests 4 years apart), but does anyone feel just a slight haziness at times even weeks after abstinence from drugs?

If so, maybe that could help explain the quote,"Nothing may happen to you, but you may be sick for the rest of your life."