Mental health
Is your drug use impacting on your mental health?
How does taking drugs affect your mental health? Some people say that using drugs doesn't affect their mental health negatively, whereas other say it can make them stressed, trigger mental illness or exacerbate existing illness.
Stress - Feeling stressed instead of relaxed after taking drugs? You might think that using certain drugs will help you relax and forget about the things that are causing you stress. However, changing the way the body and mind work with drugs is a stress in itself and you could experience tension, anxiety, paranoia and other symptoms which only add to the feelings of stress.
Psychosis - Have you or anyone you know ever lost touch with what is real? A number of drugs can trigger psychosis, which is a mental illness where you lose touch with reality. For info check out the Understanding psychosis + getting help fact sheet on Reach Out.
Depression - Have you ever felt depressed after taking drugs or felt that taking drugs make existing depression worse? Feeling low after using some drugs is common (including alcohol) - this could be due to the drug itself or because of things that happened when you were using them.
Sometimes people use drugs more when they are depressed as a way to cope with their feelings. Some people find that reducing or eliminating drug use can improve their depression.
If you think your drug use is having a negative impact on your mental health go to the who can help you section for more info.
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