Effects of Substance Abuse on Mental Health

Substance related disorders

  Definitions and terms
  Use
      This is when a person drinks alcohol or swallows smoke, sniffs or injects a mind altering substance.
  Abuse
      This is when a person is using alcohol or drugs for the purpose of intoxication or in the case of prescription for purpose beyond their intended use.
  Dependence
      It is the continuing use of alcohol or drugs despite adverse consequences to ones physical, social and psychological wellbeing
  Addiction
      This describes that state when the person experiences severe psychological and behavioral dependence on drugs or alcohol
  Withdrawal effects
      These are the adverse physical and psychological symptoms that occur when a person ceases using a substance
  Detoxification
      It is the process of safely or effectively withdrawing a person from an addictive substance usually under medical supervision
  Relapse
      This is the reoccurrence of alcohol or drug dependent behavior in an individual who has previously achieved a maintained abstinence for a significant time beyond the period of detoxification
  Intoxication
      It is the psychological and physical effects of the substance which h disappear when a substance is eliminated
  Tolerance
      The state in which repeated administration leads to decreasing the effects

  Dependence syndrome
      A person is said to have dependence syndrome they experience three of the following characteristics in the past twelve months
        1. a strong desire of compulsion to take the drug
        2. difficulty in refraining from using the substance, stopping using it   or limiting the amount taken
        3. a physiological withdrawal state when substance use has stopped or been reduced
        4. Evidence of tolerance a state in which an increasing dose of the substance required to produce the effects originally produced by lower dose.
        5. Persistence use of the substance despite clear... [continues]

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