Mental Illness In Young Adults

young people in a group supporting each other's mental health

If you are a young adult, there is a good chance you are getting ready to start or have just started the fall semester. You may even be a freshman, heading away from home for the first time in your life. Unchaperoned! This is an important time in a person’s life, one that should be cherished — in between studying and class. For most people who pursue higher education, the time literally flies by. Before you know it, graduation has come and gone and off you go to the workforce.

College days are also a time when you will come to find out who you are, in good ways and bad. Your strengths and weaknesses will come to the surface quickly without the aid of mom and dad nearby. Hopefully, you are heading off to school having a relatively healthy relationship with alcohol. It’s a substance that can hardly be avoided during this time in one’s life. Certainly, you saw some partying in high school, but there was always some parental oversight. And, the risk of getting caught, as well as the fear of punishment, keeps most teens in line.

Without fail, some heading off to college for the first time have already developed unhealthy ties to substances. Whether it be alcohol, tobacco, marijuana or all three. It could mean that you had a healthy appetite for socialization. Or, it could mean that the seeds of addiction were planted at a young age. Just that the problems of addiction have not borne fruit yet. Hopefully, it’s the former scenario. Being away from home can give one’s addiction room to grow exponentially, creating a host of problems. Issues that will need to be addressed sooner, or later. What’s more, addiction is not the only mental illness that can appear up during the college years.

Mental Illness Away From Home

A significant number of college students struggle with untreated mental illness, in one form or another. In some cases, students battle addiction and a co-occurring mental health disorder. Such a reality presents many obstacles to one’s chance of success in college. More times than not, mental illness is cited as the cause for dropping out. Fortunately, mental illness does not need to spell the end of one’s education. There are resources available on campus that can help students, with mental health disorders, keep their symptoms in check. In turn, avoiding tragedy and strengthening the chances of making it to graduation.

While the stigma of mental illness is still a very real thing, there are many more options for students today. College campuses have resources available and people students can talk to, mitigating the risks of self-harm and self-medication. It is quite common for students to develop addiction due to untreated mental health disorders.

In fact, right here in Southern California UCLA is taking mental illness seriously. The university is offering free mental health screening to all incoming freshman and transfer students, CNN reports. Such services can make all the difference in increasing a student’s chance for success. Potentially keeping them from turning to an unhealthy means of coping with the stress of college.

“To our knowledge, no other university has ever attempted screening of this nature and scale,” said UCLA Chancellor Gene Block. “Students who choose to participate will be screened for depression and related traits — anxiety, mania and suicidal tendencies. And we will offer help to those who need it.”

Mental Illness Treatment

If you are a young man reading this, there is a good chance you are not attending UCLA. However, colleges across the country are placing greater emphasis on mental illness. If you are not feeling stable or are struggling with substances to cope with how you are feeling, talk to someone. Letting it go unchecked can eventually have grave consequences.

Perhaps you are getting ready to head off to school and you know that you have a condition that needs treatment. Drinking and drugging on regular basis, in conjunction with the symptoms of depression can be dangerous. Please contact 10 Acre Ranch to discuss your treatment options. We are fully equipped to help you recover from co-occurring mental health disorders.

Good Days, and OK Days In Recovery

Depressed cheerless boy sitting in the chair with professional psychologist working in the background with people during psychological recovery group therapy session

Sponsee: How’re you today?
Sponsor: Well, thank you. There are only good days, and OK days in recovery.
Sponsee: No bad days?
Sponsor: Only in active addiction.

The above dialogue may seem inane. But, that doesn’t make it any less true. Anyone working a program knows first-hand how bad one’s days can be. Having lived for years, made up of a seemingly endless stream of bad days. You know what it was like forgoing food to pay for drugs and alcohol. You probably remember how hard it was to keep track of the lies you told, or the energy you expelled. It is hard work manipulating others to serve a disease that is trying kill you.

On the other hand, those who work a program live by a code of honesty. No matter what, even when it hurts, we are honest with ourselves and others. To live any other way almost always results in relapse. In active addiction, you were isolated. Cut off from your friends and family, connections that for most people are what’s most important. Today, you find yourself in the company of fellows working towards a common goal. That of living life on life’s terms. You find yourself “a part of” rather than “apart from.” A member of a fellowship who cares about you and your success in the life-saving journey of recovery.

Please do not read the above hypothetical discourse as meaning that there won’t be trials and tribulations in recovery. There will be. Although, as long as your recovery is intact you will be able to overcome such occurrences. And, in traversing hardship without using, your program grows stronger. Aided not by mind-altering substances, but by the spiritual connection you have with others in your support network (sponsor and recovery peers).

Overcoming Hardships In Recovery

If you find yourself having a hard day, faced with adversity, turning to your higher power for guidance is advised. If you are new to the program that might be a challenge. Until your connection with the spirit grows stronger, rely heavily on the wisdom and guidance of others in the program. Like the lighthouse on a foggy night, they will guide you back to the harbor.

One of the main reasons people working a program are able to succeed in achieving long term recovery, is fellowship. We are all in this together. Something worth being grateful for, to be sure. When having a tough day, never shy from reminding yourself how far you’ve come and that for which you’re grateful. If you are clean and sober today, you have a lot for which to be thankful. In early recovery, fresh out of treatment, life is not always going to be rainbows and unicorns.

Your recovery tools and skills acquired might only take you so far with a certain situation. The wisdom of others should always be welcomed. But, people can only help if you are open and honest about what you’re dealing with. If they do not know, how can they help. This requires that you to share with another or the group what’s going on. Rest assured, nine times out of 10, someone else has dealt with a similar situation.

The Journey of Recovery Starts With Treatment

Those of you still in active addiction may have found some of this post hard to believe or understand. Your life is likely one bad day after another, and the only relief you can find is drugs and alcohol. If you make the brave choice to seek recovery, you will see early on in treatment the importance of your peers. You will see how your connection with a higher power and others in the program can save you from yourself. Which is nothing short of a miracle given all of our histories.

Your journey begins with detox and/or addiction treatment. If you are a male ready to discover the miracles of addiction recovery, please contact 10 Acre Ranch today.

Addiction and Mental Illness Help for the Homeless

photo of a homeless man

There is no telling where substance use and co-occurring mental health disorders will take you. In most cases, nowhere that would be considered ideal. People who seek help for addiction are, in many cases, destitute and are perhaps living on the streets. Homelessness and addiction can often go hand-in-hand. And with limited resources, getting off the streets and into recovery can be a real challenge.

It is not uncommon for people living on the streets to walk into the rooms of recovery. Usually at 12 Step meetings like Narcotics Anonymous or Alcoholics Anonymous. Those who stick around can access resources that will help them change their lot. Members may be able to assist such individuals with finding temporary housing and employment. Thus, allowing them to get back on their feet while they are learning to live a life in recovery.

There are others, though, whose co-occurring mental health disorder may make it more difficult to accomplish such goals. Requiring state assistance, such as social security benefits. A number of people who have battled addiction find a way to keep their home and job. Whereas some people’s addiction and other forms of mental illness made it next to impossible. There are millions of Americans living on the streets, today. With a little support, they can find a way to live a fulfilling life.

SOAR With SAMHSA

As was mentioned earlier, one’s untreated mental disabilities can make it hard to hold down a job. Making it impossible to pay bills. It can be a real challenge to recover without a roof over one’s head, and food in the stomach. A vast number of homeless people have mental health disorders, helping them access social welfare benefits is vital.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration launched the SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access, and Recovery (SOAR) program in 2005. The goal was to assist homeless individuals navigate the arduous process of applying benefit programs Supplemental Security Income and Social Security Disability Insurance. Since the program was created, more than 27,000 Americans have gained access to SSI and SSDI benefits through SOAR.

“SAMHSA’s SOAR Technical Assistance Center helps states and communities increase access to these benefits for people with behavioral health disorders who are also experiencing homelessness, as well as for those returning to their communities from jails and hospitals.”

Those who have access to financial assistance are in better position to succeed at working a program of recovery. Managing both substance use disorders and co-occurring mental health disorders, such as depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Getting Addiction Help for A Loved One

Do you have a loved one whose addiction has brought them to the depths of despair? Living without hearth or home? Perhaps your loved one has resigned him or herself to a life of addiction. Thinking that recovery is not possible. They are not alone, many a recovering addict and alcoholic once thought that way, too. However, recovery is possible and it works. It is a difficult process to be sure, and requires (often) the full support of one’s family.

Please contact 10 Acre today to discuss options for helping your loved one find the miracles of recovery. The longer their condition persists as is, the greater the danger of tragedy.

Self-Medicating Toward Addiction

beautiful lady self-medicating toward addiction

Regarding mental illness, when it rains it pours. At least that is often the reality in the field of addiction medicine. To be clear, addiction is a form of mental illness with many symptoms, one of which is the misuse of drugs and/or alcohol. It’s a disease of the mind that has no known cure to date, but there are effective methods of treatment. Upon completing treatment, those who redouble their recovery efforts via a program like the 12-Steps often have positive outcomes.

Again, drug and alcohol use is but a symptom. There is a lot of work that needs to be done. Work which will mitigate the risk of relapse and spiraling back into active use. But, for a significant number of addicts and alcoholics, addiction is not the only mental health disorder on the table. It is extremely common for people meeting the criteria for addiction to have co-occurring mental health disorders. Often referred to as having a dual diagnosis.

Anyone working in the field knows firsthand the consequences of not treating both addiction and the dual diagnosis, together. This makes sense. Addiction is often precipitated by another form of mental illness, such as depression. The symptoms of untreated depression lead to the dangerous practice of self-medication. Which does the opposite of help, in any respect.

Self-Medicating Toward Dependence and Addiction

People whose anxiety, bipolar disorder or depression is left untreated, are essentially left to their own devices. Functioning under the cloud of depressive or manic symptoms is rarely tenable. In an attempt to quiet one’s troubled mind, drugs and alcohol often become the preferred method of treatment (escape, actually). The continued practice of using mind-altering substances to cope is a slippery slope to dependence, and ultimately addiction. People who engage in this practice actually convince themselves that the substances are helping. When, in fact, they are not.

Research has shown that illicit substance use makes the symptoms of one’s mental health disorder worse. Having the unintended effect of exacerbating the symptoms one is trying to keep at bay. The longer the act of using drugs to cope with mental illness continues, the more severe and often episodes occur. People living with a co-occurring mental health disorder are at great risk of harm. Every year, a significant number of people who meet the criteria for a co-occurring disorder take their own life. Therefore, it is so vital that people living with a mental health disorder are encouraged to talk about their condition. And by doing so, they become empowered to seek treatment.

So, just how common is mental illness in America? A new government report showed almost 1 in 5 American adults struggles with mental illness or addiction each year. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration’s (SAMHSA) report indicates nearly 44 million American adults living with mental illness, HealthDay reports.

“The presence of [any mental illness] in every state reinforces that mental illness is a major public health concern in the United States,” the report noted. “Overall treatment levels remain low, and addressing the mental health of U.S. adults remains a concern for state and national public health officials.”

Treatment Is The Answer, It Works

While treatment rates are low, they are effective for most people who seek assistance. At 10 Acre Ranch, we have helped many men, from young adults to seniors, recover from co-occurring mental health disorders. If you are battling regular episodes of depression, et al., and are dependent on substances, please contact us today. We can help you break the cycle of addiction, while simultaneously addressing the co-occurring mental illness.

MDMA Now Even More Risky Due to Rising Impurities

MDMA Ecstasy

In the past, we have written about synthetic drugs, including synthetic cannabis or bath salts, perhaps the two most popular types. Such drugs are most commonly used among young people, the impoverished or people looking to beat a drug test. The news has been good about scaring some people away from trying or using these chemical regularly— being both dangerous and addictive. Overdose death rate stats are difficult to determine in the U.S., as people present in emergency departments with various side-effect symptoms.

While individuals will continue to use such drugs, if they are available, hopefully access will begin to decrease. However, even when people think they are doing one type of drug, they may in fact be doing something altogether different. You may have heard reports about the highly potent opioid fentanyl being stamped into pills resembling OxyContin? If so, then you probably know that many overdose deaths have resulted from disguising one drug as something else.

Fentanyl is not the only drug being mislabeled. It turns out that drugs that are popular among “clubbers” and music festival goers are commonly adulterated with other substances, some of which are potentially lethal. We don’t hear much anymore about Ecstasy. It is still used and abused to be sure, but these days people are more interested in 3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA). The psychoactive ingredient used to make Ecstasy. Most people prefer to use MDMA because it is purer than Ecstasy, which is usually mixed with fillers like caffeine or other harmful additives. But is it really more pure? Is it even MDMA that people are doing? Sometimes, not always.

MDMA, Or Something Else?

New research suggests that MDMA, commonly called “Molly,” often contains dangerous additives, notably the chemicals used to make bath salts, according to a press release from The Johns Hopkins University. DanceSafe, a nonprofit, tested samples of pills or powder thought to be MDMA by people at music festivals and such. The service was conducted discreetly and free of charge. Of the 529 total samples collected between July 2010 and July 2015, 318 (roughly 60 percent) actually contained MDMA or the closely related drug MDA. The adulterated Molly contained:

  • Methylone and cathinones used to make synthetic drugs.
  • Methamphetamine
  • PMA, a dangerous form of amphetamine associated with overdoses and death.

The results show that the likelihood of taking something even more dangerous than MDMA is high.

“People who take pills and first responders need to know that no matter how the pills are branded or what name they are sold as, they almost always contain a mix of ingredients,” says Matthew W. Johnson, Ph.D., associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “Our results should discourage a false sense of security about the purity and safety of so-called Molly.”

MDMA Addiction

If you are using drugs like MDMA regularly, there is a good chance that you will be exposed to substances that are both addictive and dangerous. “Club drugs” are far from safe. Pure does not mean that a substance is without risk. Please contact 10 Acre Ranch for help.

Addiction Stigma In The Language

Prescription painkillers oxycodone spilling from a bottle on a table with other bottles out of focus

Alcohol use disorder and opioid use disorder. Addict, alcoholic, alcohol and/or substance abuser. Junkie, crackhead, dope fiend, pill head, et al. If you are in recovery, you’re acutely familiar with all of these terms. Many of you have even referred to yourself using such pejorative names. The language we use to describe people who have been touched by the insidious disease of addiction can, and does, have an effect on the afflicted. Even if those suffering from such conditions don’t know it.

Addiction is a complex disease that is centered in the brain. The causes are debatable, but the treatment is not—generally speaking. Despite the fact that use disorders are accepted mental health conditions, the general public remains skeptical about how much choice is involved. To be sure, people suffering from addiction made an initial choice to try a substance. But what followed for those predisposed to the disease had little to do with choice.

When we refer to people as abusers, a word still used among people even in the field of addiction, the condition becomes stigmatized. The word abuse is hardly ever accompanied by something good. Yet, even in modern times when addiction is understood better than ever, it is hard to change the language of addiction. Rest assured, however, that by altering how we talk about the disease, more people can be encouraged to seek help.

Addiction Stigma In The Language

Changing how we label substance use disorders is difficult. Even experts struggle to agree on the correct way to go about the renaming. Even when a label sounds scientific “use disorder,” dis-order still carries a negative connotation. The word “abuse” needs no explanation. Some people have even raised concerns about the word alcoholic, after all, there are centuries of negative undertones associated with the word.

What’s more, there is likely a huge contingent of people in recovery who would not be receptive to identifying as, “My name is John D., and I have an alcohol use disorder.” But changing how people in recovery refer to themselves is not as important, at the end of the day. Changing how society refers to people in the grips of addiction, could have a profitable effect. People who are described as having a form of chronic disease, are far more likely to seek help. Compared to people who are labeled as “X” abusers. And researchers tend to agree on this.

In fact, recent studies have shown that the language we use actually matters. Dr. John F. Kelly, director of the Recovery Research Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and associate professor of psychiatry and addiction medicine at Harvard Medical School, conducted a study which supports this idea. His findings showed that medical professionals are more likely to treat people with substance use disorders differently if they are described as “abusers,” according to U.S. News & World Report.

“Dropping the use of stigmatizing language “can save lives,” says Dr. John F. Kelly. Certain language “could suggest willful misconduct, which some people believe should be punished, not treated.”

From Stigma to Treatment

Dr. Kelly’s sentiments are shared by the former Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), the article reports. Michael Botticelli, the executive director at the Grayken Center for Addiction Medicine at Boston Medical Center, says:

“Changing the Language of Addiction,” a 2016 paper he co-wrote for JAMA. “Stigma isolates people, discourages people from coming forward for treatment and leads some clinicians, knowingly or unknowingly, to resist delivering evidence-based treatment services.”

Botticelli co-authored a paper on this very subject that was published in JAMA.

Changing the language of addiction in America could help some of the millions of people who are resistant to seeking help. Fear of reprisals for seeking help is deeply rooted, due to the government’s response to addiction in the past. The stakes are extremely high, people are dying from the disease every day. If you or a loved one is struggling with addiction, please contact 10 Acre Ranch, today.