The Sunday Mail
Mertha Mo Nyamande
THIS week, we are going to explore the relationship between addictions and anxiety, and which drugs to use to help manage the latter.
Drugs and alcohol have been causing quite a stir in our society of late, and here is why.
Many people have anxieties about life, health and various other things — including work, money and relationships.
While these issues are a normal part of life, if the anxiety becomes too much, we become disabled and fearful that everything is going to go bad, wrong or tragic.
Anxieties largely begin in adolescence, when teenagers start to feel pressure from their families to perform well in their final exams and generally worry about what they will do after they finish school.
This is the time when most young people start to experiment with other harmful things like alcohol, drugs and sex.
Anxieties can, however, start much earlier, where a child is exposed to what are referred to as adverse childhood experiences like the absence of a parent, loss or abuse.
Such exposures can have lasting consequences on the rest of the individual’s life, especially when they do not get the right psychological help or support to process their traumatic experiences.
In Zimbabwe, just as in most African countries, we have a lot of children who grow up away from their parents.
They often stay with aunts, uncles or grandparents. This is a big source of anxiety for the child, which often grows and gets worse into adulthood.
While anxiety is an emotion that helps us survive most threats we encounter or perceive, it can also be disabling.
Unresolved anxieties can develop into more complex issues like general anxiety disorders, phobias, obsessive compulsive disorders and post-traumatic stress disorders.
Things like sleep, appetite, energy and mood can also be affected.
The use of drugs can be a good way of managing anxiety, but only when they are supervised or regulated by a doctor or pharmacist.
The biggest problem with the use of any drug (alcohol included) is that anyone can take any amount they want, without any regulation, and this is what governments worldwide are now struggling to contain.
Unregulated use of drugs strains health systems and costs lives over time.
Drugs in themselves are not the problem, but the lack of management or regulation, which leads to overdose and, in worst cases, death.
Drugs work differently and on different aspects of the body and health.
However, the most abused are psychoactive drugs that alter the way people think, feel and behave. They include pain-relieving medicines.
People mostly start taking drugs to numb pain or distress arising from anxiety, before this develops into other problems highlighted above, and addictions.
Abuse of substances such as alcohol and cigarettes causes damage over a long period.
But other substances like cocaine, heroin and alcoholic drinks (spirits) that are stronger and more potent can cause death.
The most common symptoms of overdose are a drastic physical reaction, adverse change in mood and/or behaviour, and suppressed breathing or shortness of breath.
When used over a longer period, they slowly affect vital organs — especially the liver, lungs, heart, kidneys, the stomach lining, teeth and veins, depending on the route used.
With psychoactive substances, the brain is affected, which leads to more or worse mental and neuroleptic illnesses.
That said, we need to understand what those who take drugs are struggling with and what they are trying to do.
We must help them through better ways, ones that are regulated and professionally guided.
We need to use different strategies to help our people in their struggles.
The authorities in particular should start supporting, rather than punish, those who are struggling.
Mertha Mo Nyamande is a psychotherapist. He can be contacted on [email protected] or @ www.i-wellbeing.weebly.com
