It is a common saying in the revival movement that mental illness does not cause addiction, but alcohol and drug addiction creates mental illness. Can move towards Depression can lead to uncomfortable feelings such as sadness, hopelessness, apathy, loneliness, sleep disorders, and digestive problems. If patients do not take their medications as prescribed or seek treatment from their doctor, they self-medicate and this approach makes depression worse. Richard Lewinsky is a psychotherapist and addiction specialist with over 25 years of experience as a consultant to various organizations in the field of addiction and mental health. He has served on the Ethics Committee for and is the author of The Therapy Revolution, Help-Seeking, Improvement, and Moving Forward without Wasting Time or Money.
Editor: Iqra Tariq
Using alcohol or cocaine may temporarily relieve symptoms, but in response releases certain chemicals in your body that bring out depression in a new way. This withdrawal depression will occur every time you put chemicals into your body. Although initially some people do not experience severe symptoms and this withdrawal depression may lead you to use more alcohol and drugs to get rid of these uncomfortable feelings. Another problem is that if you use drugs and alcohol along with the medicine, it neutralizes the effect of the medicine because in fact alcohol and drugs have a very powerful and strong effect, however it can put a person at risk.
Some people begin abusing prescription drugs in recovery because of personal life-threatening situations caused by substance abuse, traumatic experiences with addiction, and difficult recovery. Time passes. In fact, I have seen patients who, with their willpower and self-confidence, gave up drug use all at once and still managed to cope with the terrible symptoms of depression without medication. Are ready and their social support friends advise them to stop using drugs? That one should talk to a friend because their solution lies only with a psychologist. One question I often ask my patients who have been diagnosed with depression after an addiction is, do you think your depression was caused by your alcohol and drug use? So their initial response would always be “maybe”.
A trained psychotherapist can determine the true cause of depression, whether it was drug-induced or pre-existing. Which condition occurred first?
Why is it important to know when depression occurred? Because if a person continues to use drugs before developing depression, they need more treatment. Now there are two types of depression treatments, one is the depression that is due to drugs and the other is the depression due to which a person becomes addicted to drugs. Whenever someone comes into a drug treatment center with addiction-induced depression, they can’t even articulate what’s going on with them, so they’re only diagnosed with psychiatry. If a patient develops depression due to misuse of Lamicals, it is called for treatment. Within a few weeks they often ask what I am doing here. I don’t have any problem. In all these cases it is very important to know about depression, did I have depression first or addiction problem?