When you have a mental illness, self-medication and addiction are a huge risk. With the current stigma against mental illness persisting, it can seem easier to simply handle your symptoms yourself. However, when you abuse addictive substances, there are always consequences.
Once you are in rehab and focusing on your recovery, you may notice your symptoms returning worse than ever before. This is the result of the addiction. Sobriety after a stint of self-medication can very easily lead to increased difficulties with your illness. All too commonly, this also means suicidal thoughts. Here are a few steps you can use to cope with suicidal thoughts as you work to overcome an addiction.
Get Professional Treatment
Your very first step needs to be seeking professional help. Self-medication often occurs due to a lack of proper treatment and should be corrected immediately. Without treatment, it becomes far more likely for you to fall back into old habits in an attempt to manage your symptoms.
As someone with a mental illness and an addiction, you are already at a greater risk for suicide than other people. By seeking help, you can reduce that statistic and avoid relapse. A quality treatment should be tackling both your addiction and your mental illness, not just one or the other.
Find a Healthy Coping Tactic
Other people use drugs or alcohol as more of a coping tactic than a treatment. If their depression, anxiety, or other illness is acting up, a substance can make you feel better for a short period of time. This habit evolves into a comfort item for whenever things get bad. For example, someone with anxiety may have abused alcohol to get through a social occasion. Suddenly, they are drinking every time they need to spend time with other people.
A positive coping tactic will help your brain replace the addiction. Rather than wishing for the substance, your brain will learn to reach for the coping method instead. Some great options might be coloring, cross-stitching, yoga, meditation, knitting, or doodling.
People undergoing a stressful time in their lives need the support of others. If you have close friends and family, find a way to reach out and stay in touch. Make sure you educate them on your problems so that they can be as helpful as possible during this time.
If you do not have many people in your life that you feel safe around, you may consider a support group. Support groups are wonderful because they are pre-educated friends who understand what you are going through and know how to help.
Handling suicidal thoughts is never easy but experiencing this problem in the face of addiction recovery and mental illness is even harder. It is important that you take the necessary steps to handle these thoughts and do not brush them off. Suicidal thoughts are very serious and require support and treatment to correct. So find help and reach out to loved ones or support groups. You do not need to go through this alone.
Chloe Pearson is a research specialist and freelance writer. She enjoys volunteering for ConsumerHealthLabs.com because she understands that in order for consumers to make the best decisions about their health they need reliable, well-researched information on which to base those decisions. And that’s precisely what everyone at Consumer Health Labs aims to do as they explore and interpret new health-related data and research.
Image via Pixabay by zachosine
BESTSELLING AUTHOR YASSIN HALL FURTHERS MISSION AS PART OF NATIONAL MENTAL ILLNESS AWARENESS WEEK 2016
In recognition of Mental Illness Awareness Week (#MIAW October 2nd -8th 2016) Author Yassin Hall brings her mission of replacing stigma with education and healing to the forefront. She is a Mental Health Advocate, Educator, Motivational Speaker and Amazon Best Selling Author of “Journey Untold…Twisted Love: My Mother’s Struggle with Mental Illnesses”. Millions of Americans live with and are affected by mental health issues and conditions. Since 1992, the U.S. Congress enacted the first week of October as Mental Illness Awareness Week. An annual week fostering national unified conversation of advocates across the country to change the epidemic.
Born and raised on St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, Hall now based in Atlanta, Georgia is the visionary of a movement founded on her commitment to empower youths and communities facing mental health issues to cope and heal. Her mother’s public battle and unfortunate demise with mental illnesses birthed a huge obstacle that could’ve easily derailed her. Hall’s story is one of severe turmoil and eventual redemption of a child growing up on a small island community with a mother battling mental illnesses. “Journey Untold…Twisted Love: My Mother’s Struggle with Mental Illnesses” has become her platform to channel change in breaking mental illness stigma through acceptance, education and treatment.
She is the Founder and Program Manager of Milestones Moms Support GroupMilestones Moms Support Group, an entity providing support and resources to mothers who share similar unspoken experiences and challenges of raising a child suffering from some form of mental illness. Hall is a certified CIT & Mental Health First Aider, Dance Mom, Entrepreneur, Real Estate Mogul and Life Mentor. She has appeared on CBS and PBS Television in addition to working closely with the DOH to bring awareness to communities with many undiagnosed and untreated mentally ill. She has devoted her time, services and efforts to numerous organizations dedicated to this cause including NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) and served as a Presenter on the organization’s behalf for “Ending the Silence”. Amongst her many other affiliations and work with mental illness in the Caribbean and U.S., she was recently announced as a distinguished panelist for Teachers of Atlanta 2017 Speakers. If you or someone you know may need anonymous online tools concerning help with mental illness or to join in this mission, please visit www.JourneyUntold.com