Friday, March 25, 2016

Mental Illness and Substance Abuse

Mental illness can be triggered and worsened by taking recreational drugs, especially if you already have a genetic predisposition that you might not know of. I heard a story of a teenage boy who used to be a happy and popular high school student. He went to a party and took two pills he didn’t even know what it was. He became psychotic for the next few days. People told him to drink a lot of water in the hope that the drug would just pee out of his system. Unfortunately, after the psychosis had subsided, he fell into a depression and eventually committed suicide. Therefore, really be careful with the choices you make in life. Drugs and alcohol abuse can also worsen a mental illness. Think about it, they can mess up a healthy person’s brain; imagine the damage it could make on a mentally unhealthy person. In addition, they can also offset the effects of psychotropic medications. Therefore, if you want to recover from a mental illness, get sober first!