Depression is very often the precursor to substance abuse. Depression and substance abuse form a cycle. People who are depressed abuse drugs and alcohol to help alleviate their depression. People who abuse substances then become depressed by the damage they have inflicted on themselves, it is a cycle.
Using Opiates and Heroin to Cope with Depression
Opiates and Heroin are depressants (not stimulants). Their effect is not a simple suppression of feelings: it provides the user a type of "joy" in having their feelings suppressed. While on opiates, people can give anxiety and depression "the slip". Being high on opiates makes one feel like doing nothing, and that doing nothing in life is more than all right. People who have used Heroin and Opiates, and are managing to live drug free, or with methadone suffer tremendous and high rates of depression. Neurologists say that this is because of organic damage to the brain produced by the opiates.
Interestingly, during the Vietnam War, most of the ground troops used Heroin, and there was concern that when they returned home to the United States that they would fight a battle with addiction to the drug. In fact, studies indicate the most veterans of Vietnam have used heroin a least once since their return, but only a small proportion of them have a continuing addiction. That is relatively good news with regard to the prognosis of getting off heroin. Read more at http://www.newliferecovery.net/depression-addiction-self-medicating.html
0 comments:
Post a Comment