Someone with PTSD can feel helpless and hopeless. Suicidal thoughts are common, as is the abuse of alcohol or other substances in an attempt to stop the intrusive thoughts, memories, and experiences triggered by PTSD.
Having a drink, or a few to unwind or socialize is legal and completely acceptable in today’s world. But when does social drinking or drinking in general become a problem? Many people don’t recognize that their drinking might be a medically diagnosed disorder according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders (DSM).
In recent years the opioid epidemic has grown so much that it’s overshadowed the more lethal scourge of alcoholism, which claims its victims through a wider range of methods.
Of all the substances that people abuse, only one fits into ALL the following criteria: socially acceptable, over-the-counter accessible, the cost is not prohibitive, legal for adults to purchase in all 50 states, and often viewed as harmless or a normal rite of passage into adulthood. This magic elixir is alcohol.
While the lead headline from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) touted “Marijuana use at historic highs among college-age adults,” the institute could have also released some positive headlines.
To begin to calculate the value of treatment for substance abuse, it is helpful to first understand the costs related to substance abuse. Substance abuse impact is expensive, not just to the person using the substance, but to their family, workplace and society.
Attractiveness. Affordability. Availability. These three factors can make or break America’s struggle against the crisis of alcoholism and we’re intentionally ignoring them.
Families often struggle to get a loved one into treatment for an alcohol or drug addiction. It is not easy to start a conversation about addiction, and many times the person struggling with addiction responds with excuses, anger, denial or minimization. A conversation can easily escalate to an argument where nothing is accomplished.
The summer, and the “Turn on, tune in, drop out” movement it inspired, may have faded into autumn, but recreational drug use numbers continued to grow. As of the 2017 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, more than 130 million Americans have tried illegal drugs in their lifetime, and up to 30 million report usage within the “past month.”
Veterans aren’t invincible. Hollywood does a fantastic job of making military members seem invincible. But the fact is they’re flesh and blood like the rest of us, and when troops …