Generally, the person consuming psychoactive substances is told to have willpower, to make the effort to stop consuming, with examples of people who did not need help to stop consuming, ignoring the physical effects that the person may present and forgetting the importance of an assessment by a health professional of the person’s mental state.
Dual Pathology
Pathology is understood as a situation where the person who usually uses psychoactive substances, has some psychiatric disorder , which generates a dangerous combination that ends in behaviors full of aggressiveness, deep sadness or social isolation.
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One of the most frequent questions that arises when reviewing the concept of dual pathology is whether the consumption of substances generates damage to the organism that leads to mental problems or whether, on the contrary, it is the mental illness that causes the person to develop addictive behaviors.
Can a substance develop a mental illness? Or is it the mental illness that causes the person to develop addictive behaviors?
The answer to this question can only be solved in each person when there is a prudent period without consuming psychoactive substances and under the supervision of qualified personnel, who can determine if the mental illness came before the consumption or if it was the consumption that caused the mental illness.
This allows us to observe the high degree of damage that can be caused by the ingestion of psychoactive substances, modifying aspects of the person such as lucidity, judgment, memory, attention, intelligence, self-control, among many others, which can trigger or cause serious mental illnesses and thus deteriorate the social and family support networks, as well as the physical and mental integrity of the individual.
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By: Juan Gabriel López Monsalve – Brújula Salud Mental
