By Nick Tabor, New Era Senior Staff Writer
Psychiatrists
often see the same drugs paired with certain mental illnesses: patients with
severe depression using cocaine, those with panic disorder becoming alcoholics,
those with schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder combining
narcotics, Psychology Today magazine reports.
The
drug addiction can result from the mental illness. For instance, someone with
bipolar disorder might smoke marijuana heavily to even out moods.
It’s
a way of quelling the symptoms — “self-medicating.”
Tim
Golden, spokesman for the Pennyroyal
Mental Health
Center, said rehab
programs typically focus on the addiction alone.
“But
if you don’t treat the mental side as well, then you have the recipe for
another relapse,” Golden said.
To reverse this trend, this month the Pennyroyal Center
took over the rehab program at Western
State Hospital.
