Connecting Minds: The Link Between Mental Health and Substance Use

For teens, there is a significant link between mental health and substance use. This profound connection greatly influences many teens and their ability to heal. Tony Hoffman understands this relationship personally. When Tony was 18 years old, he struggled with his mental health and addiction, even though he looked like a promising BMX racer externally. Understanding how these connections intertwine, including the stigmas that surround both, helped him heal and move forward, building a successful career and creating a life where he is happy, healthy, and sober. 

This outcome is possible for teens as well, and when an individual is aided in this journey early on in life, they have a decreased risk of going down the slippery slope that is associated with both mental health and addiction challenges. Even when the road looks hopeless, taking one step at a time and learning about this connection can help teens change their lives in a positive direction. 

Mental Health and Substance Use

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), 61.2 million adolescents over 12 years old abuse drugs or alcohol, one in five adolescents have at least one depressive episode a year, and 13.5% of young adults struggle with both mental health challenges and addiction. When teens struggle with both mental health challenges and addiction, the combination derails their lives.

Tony Hoffman was one of these young adults. Without help, Tony slipped down into a life marked with crime and addiction. He found himself in prison, homeless, and struggling with the overwhelming combination of mental health difficulties and addiction. However, Tony Hoffman was able to rebuild his life. Now, he helps others understand the challenges that teens face and how they can take steps to change their lives and heal. 

The Connection: Mental Health and Substance Use

When teens are having mental health symptoms, their thoughts, feelings, and actions are all impacted severely. This can be a result of many different causes, including family history or trauma. However, regardless of the cause or type of mental health challenge, teen's brains are impacted. The specific type of mental health issues a teen is dealing with will change how their brain is impacted. For example, a teen with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) will have less frontal cortex activation which results in lower inhibition and lack of focus. 

Mental health is not the only thing that impacts how a teen's brain functions. Substance use also has a significant effect on the brain. When an individual uses a substance, it interacts with their brain and body. Each substance is unique in how it interacts. However, the effects are a result of how the substance impacts the body and brain. This is especially true for teens, as they are in a time of change and growth. Therefore, their mind and body are particularly susceptible to the effects of a substance.

A Two-Way Street

Both mental health and substance use impact a teen's mind and body separately. However, there is also a strong connection between the two. The connection is complex and unique for each teen, depending on many factors. This includes the type of mental health challenges they are facing and how they are impacted. Additionally, their home environment and how they are supported through their mental health issues make a difference. Finally, the type and amount of substance use change their susceptibility to mental health issues. 

However, regardless of a teen's specific situation, mental health challenges and substance use often come together. This is due to both impacting how a teen thinks, feels, and acts. Due to substance use and mental health impacting a teen's mind and body, substance use can lead to mental health challenges, and mental health issues can lead a teen towards substance use. 

Mental Health and Substance Use

For teens who are struggling with their mental health and substance use, unwinding the puzzle of these intertwining problems is important. While it can seem impossible, teens and their loved ones can get help and support as they learn what is contributing to these challenges. With help, they can make changes that help them learn new patterns, make real changes, and learn to live their lives in a new and healthier way. 

When Tony Hoffman was a teen, he struggled with anxiety, depression, and substance use. Part of his healing process included learning about his mental health and how it was intertwined with his substance use. While Tony Hoffman's story is different from other teens, it is important to remember that after years of homelessness, prison, and addiction, Tony changed. By understanding if mental health is the original cause or if substance use has impacted a teen's health, they can learn how to better care for their needs both as a teen and far into adulthood. 

When Mental Health Is the Cause

Individuals with a variety of mental health issues begin to use substances. This includes the following mental health disorders:

• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

• Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)

• Panic disorder

• Depression

• ADHD

• Bipolar disorder

• Borderline personality disorder (BPD)

• Schizophrenia 

Individuals with a mental health disorder are at a higher risk for substance use; this includes teens with mental health challenges. This is unique for each teen. However, there are two main reasons why there is a significant connection between mental health challenges and substance use. 

First, many teens with mental health challenges are looking for a way to dull their symptoms. This may include trying to get through the day when they are experiencing depression or wanting to decrease anxiety symptoms. Regardless of the symptoms, substance use can give them immediate relief from their mental health challenges. However, this immediate relief quickly becomes dependent on an addictive substance and can cause long-term challenges with their mental health. 

Additionally, mental health issues influence how the brain functions. Teens are already susceptible to the effects of substances due to the changes that are occurring in the brain. However, when they are additionally influenced by mental health issues, they are even more sensitive to the effects of a substance. As was the case with Tony Hoffman, trying out a substance a couple of times can easily lead down the hard road of dependence and addiction.  

Substance Use Influences Mental Health

While many teens look like adults, they are still in a significant phase of development. Teens are undergoing the process of their brain and their body moving toward adulthood. As a result, teens often go through phases of hormonal changes that make many things difficult. However, these changes also impact how substance use influences them. Teens are in a place where they are highly affected by substances, and substance use can make temporary and permanent changes in the brain. 

Due to the changes that occur in the brain with substance use, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), youth who use substances are at a higher risk for developing mental health disorders. In addition, they are at a higher risk of dropping out of school, pursuing illegal activities, and addiction. All of these things can derail a teen's life and lead them to homelessness, addiction, and poor overall health. 

Every teen will be influenced uniquely by substance use. Teens with a family history of mental health disorders are more likely to struggle with mental health. Therefore, teens with a family history of mental health disorders may develop more mental health challenges due to substance use. In addition, the type and amount of substance use makes a significant difference. However, regardless of the severity, substance use often leads to mental health challenges that cause complications for teens and make the road to recovery more difficult. 

Stigmas: Mental Health and Substance Use

Teens face many judgments from others. However, teens who are struggling with their mental health and substance use experience the full extent of the stigmas that surround both. Each teen's experience of stigmatization is unique. Regardless, it often includes bullying, shaming, or discrimination. For any individual, these behaviors from others are difficult, but for teens, that can be particularly difficult as they are in the formative years of their lives where they are learning who they are in the world and forming their identity. 

The stigmas around mental health vary but often include the assumption that an individual can just choose to feel differently. Someone who is struggling with anxiety is told to calm down, while an individual with depression is told to cheer up and get out of bed. However, mental health is complex. There are many reasons why a teen will struggle with their mental health, and they are not choosing to experience these symptoms. 

Substance use is common among teens, and many teens experience stigmatization around both sides of substance use, choosing not to use substances and choosing to use substances. However, when a teen is using substances, they are labeled as a bad kid or a troubled teen. In reality, most teens who are using substances are not bad. By being labeled as bad, they are pushed more solidly into the life of substance use instead of being aided and assisted in how they can make changes. 

Treatment for Mental Health and Substance Use

Co-occurring mental health challenges and substance use are very difficult for teens to cope with. It often feels extremely lonely and isolating, without any clear way of moving forward. Fortunately, teens can make changes that help them to rewrite their story. Each teen's path to healing is unique. However, diagnosis and treatment for mental health disorders and addiction or substance use are important. 

Detox

Due to teens being highly influenced by substances, detox is commonly an important part of the healing process. This is especially true for teens who have become dependent on a substance and are experiencing withdrawal symptoms. Detox in a treatment facility helps teens stop using drugs or alcohol while they are carefully monitored to ensure they stay healthy during the process. 

During detox, the body has to undergo the process of change. When a teen has used a substance, their body and mind become accustomed to having the substance. Therefore, in detox, the body has to learn how to function without it. This is often an uncomfortable process, but once through detox, an individual has a more clear mind to make the necessary changes to heal. 

Addiction Treatment

After detox, addiction treatment is unique for each individual. However, it often includes a combination of therapeutic modalities that help the individual to become more aware of why they have struggled with addiction and substance use. This often includes addressing past trauma. However, it also involves looking at behaviors and choices that have contributed to continued substance use. 

Making changes is difficult. For teens, it can feel like an arduous process. However, addiction treatment offers support for teens to make the changes they need to heal from their substance use. They will learn tools and techniques to change how they relate to themselves, other individuals in their lives, and the world. This helps them to make different choices in the future and protects them from going back to substance use after treatment. 

Diagnosis and Treatment: Mental Health

Along with addiction treatment, getting a proper diagnosis and treatment for mental health challenges is equally important for teens struggling with both. This is due to the tight connection between mental health and substance use. When only substance use is addressed, teens are more likely to return home and still struggle. However, when their mental health is also addressed, they are able to truly find a new path forward. 

Diagnosis and treatment for mental health challenges is a process led by a mental health provider. A counselor will help teens express the mental health challenges they are facing and give support and care that helps them to heal. They do so by first gaining a true insight into the issues. Once they have this knowledge, they build a treatment plan that addresses these mental health challenges. This can include medications, individual therapy, group therapy, or alternative therapeutic modalities. 

Building Resilience

Due to the connection between mental health and substance use, a true treatment that builds resilience addresses both. In therapy, teens learn to understand the connections between the two and how they intersect in their lives. They learn how their mental and emotional state plays a role in their choice to use substances and how substances impact how they feel and act. 

A primary goal of treatment for teens is to help them build the skills they need to be resilient to challenges in their lives. This is because stress is a normal part of life. However, when a teen is prepared for the stressors they experience, they are less likely to struggle with their mental health or use substances as a result. Instead, they will have other tools that can help them to problem solve and cope with issues as they arise. 

By building resilience, teens are protected as they grow and develop into adulthood. This is important as individuals who use substances and struggle with mental health issues in their youth are more likely to develop addiction and mental health challenges in adulthood. 

Finding Hope After Mental Health and Substance Abuse Issues

When teens have mental health challenges and struggle with addiction, it can feel hopeless for the individual who is struggling and those who are supporting them. However, change is possible. Tony Hoffman is an example of how much an individual can change. After prison, homelessness, addiction, and mental health challenges, Tony turned his life around. 

His story can help teens and their loved ones to see that it is not too late. There is hope, and teens can make changes and heal, even when they are experiencing stigmatization and discrimination. 

There is a profound connection between mental health and substance use in teens. These intertwined challenges, however, can make it difficult for teens to heal. In addition, the stigmas that surround both mental health issues and addiction often lead teens and their loved ones to feel hopeless. However, there is hope, and teens can re-write their story. They can get the help they need to build skills that give them resilience and strength as they move towards adulthood. Tony Hoffman can help to build awareness of how teens can make this shift in their lives. If you are interested in learning more about Tony Hoffman and how he can help, call us today at (559) 392-8897.