Substance use and abuse are major challenges that can affect an individuals mental health. “Substances” include a wide range of things that can alter physiology and behavior. These include legal drugs such as nicotine and alcohol to illicit drugs like cocaine and heroin. Our society accepts use of substances as a part of normal interpersonal interactions such as cocktails at a party, or beers with the guys while watching ‘the game.’ The issues occur when these activities start to take over an individual and become the focus rather than an augmentation of social interactions. These impacts extend past the effects on the person, but affect family, friends and even the community as a whole.
The following information focuses on alcohol use because of the ease of access, frequency of use and potential for abuse. The information has many commonalities with other substances. Excessive alcohol use resulted in approximately 88,000 deaths and 2.5 million years of potential life lost *each year* in the United States from 2006 – 2010? That is not a heartwarming statistic, it’s a real one…and one we should all be aware of as you cannot correct issues if you don’t know about them. Further, similar statistics are available for many other substances.
That said, for general information from the Centers for Disease Control please visit: http://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/fact-sheets/alcohol-use.htm
Let’s educate our community about the resources available – together we can make statistics like the one above a thing of the past.
The Public Health Corps, whose mission it is to offer support to our community on topics related to health, has a number of information sources which we would like to share with you. Feel free to check out the links which we hope may answer questions or provide insight:
How to Recognize an Alcohol Addiction
Drug Use Signs/Symptoms – Narconon
Signs of Addiction and Drug Use
Helping a Family Member or Friend with an Addiction Problem
The Guide to Aquatic Therapy for Recovering Addicts
Stress Management: How to Reduce, Prevent, and Cope with Stress