Increase in Self-Medicating Mental and Physical Issues Among Teens

*Names have been changed to protect identity

Then eighth grader Jane Thompson* tried to fix the pain from being bullied and her anxiety all by herself. Self-medicating with Amitriptyline, her prescribed migraine medicine, was the “simple” solution. But it only helped for an instant.

The pain never left her. It was everywhere, then it was nowhere.

The night before her heart stopped beating, Thompson was dressed in her My Chemical Romance themed costume at a Halloween party. To her friends, she seemed exactly like she always did. Normal.

But the next day, after a fight with her girlfriend, something in her mind “clicked.” Her depressive thoughts — caused by a chemical imbalance in her brain — came racing back. She sent her friends a vague “I’m sorry” text before downing 30 tablets of 50-milligram Amitriptyline — 29 more than her prescribed amount.

Defibrillators shocked her heart back to life after it stopped twice in the back of the ambulance as they drove to KU Medical Center. She was lying in a coma for 24 hours while the ventilator breathed for her. When she woke up with doctors and family all around her, she returned to the world she tried desperately to get away from.

Three years later. A depression diagnosis. A prescription for antidepressants. A therapist. A near death experience. She sees herself getting better.

But she’s still using opioids, nicotine and alcohol to numb her pain.

***

The recent death of rapper Mac Miller on Sept. 7 and the July overdose of singer Demi Lovato has Twitter users calling drug and alcohol abuse corresponding to mental health the “invisible disease.” Substance abuse through self medication —  the act of using unprescribed drugs in an attempt to relieve pain or issues — affects 24.6 million Americans over the age of 12 per year who admit to using substances for self-help related reasons, making up nearly 9.4 percent of the population, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

In a poll taken by 232 East students, 48.3 percent replied that they had used drugs and alcohol before, and of that percentage, 23.7 percent have used substances to avoid or temporarily alleviate pain and other negative issues.

Self medication among teens ages 16 to 20 for mental and physical health issues has spiked 8.3 percent since 2002, according to a 2017 annual report from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Teenagers who suffer from undiagnosed depression or anxiety often reach for alcohol and drugs, as opposed to the alternative of practicing healthy coping mechanisms through professional help due to the belief that it’s a way to “escape,” according to family practitioner Dr. Laura Gaffney. Self-medicating issues span anywhere from taking opioids for situational-depression after being dumped, to smoking a joint for the occasional headache, to taking a Xanax to calm undiagnosed mental illnesses.

According to Clinical Addiction Counselor Dr. Amber Reed, rather than realizing their issues and addressing them in a healthy manner through a doctor’s visit or with coping mechanisms, teens turn to self medication — a solution which, may work at first, but eventually complicates the issues further, leading to long-term effects. When one sobers up or comes down from a high, their boredom returns, their depression continues to linger and their relationships are still in need of repair.

Continuing to use substances even though its causing health and relationship issues, using more of substance than you used to in order to get the same high and not being able to quit after trying are all considered the warning signs of self medicating and when it’s time to seek help, according to Reed.

“Substance-using teenagers sometimes turn into substance-using adults who don’t know how to deal with their boss saying ‘no,’ their girlfriend feeling overwhelmed or the loss of their first dog,” Reed said. “Instead of using the skills they could have gained during their teenage years, they use substances to numb it all out.”

According to family practitioner Laura Gaffney, the connection between alcohol and drugs corresponding to teenage health isn’t touched upon nearly enough. Once a using pattern begins, often innocently enough with occasional recreational use, the relationship between user and substance yields danger. The person is no longer downing the drink, now the drink is downing the person, and it takes the user becoming self aware to begin recovery.

“[Self medicating] helped for a short period of time but only for a couple minutes, maybe a couple hours, then right back to feeling down,” Thompson said. “I still have my ups and downs and suicidal thoughts, but now I see a therapist every two weeks and we’re trying to figure out the right medication to regulate my use and those feelings.”

According to Reed, there are thousands of dangerous effects of using substances as a teenager. Some of the effects being the risk of overdose, impaired memory and becoming mentally, emotionally and physically addicted, resulting in the original issue to become worse like Thompson’s worsening depression.

Using drugs and alcohol as a teenager affects the developing brain, significantly altering the chemical makeup by flooding it with dopamine — a neurotransmitter, with chemicals responsible for sending signals in between the nerve cells of the brain, directly relating to addiction, a loss of motivation during everyday tasks at school and social activities and memory loss. Reed said.

Senior Steven Johnson* turned to self-medicating after his prescribed anxiety medicine, failed to fully relieve his anxiety. His use of recreational marijuana for his diagnosed anxiety significantly affected his memory. Simple things such as vocabulary terms and what he ate for breakfast slipped his mind as a result of his use. His “remedy” not only sometimes worsened his anxiety due to the effects of the unprescribed drugs, but intensified the sense of dependency as well.

“The issue comes from the dependency [we have from the drugs], it’s not just an escapism, it’s like an elevation,” Johnson said. “You need to elevate yourself away from sobriety at all times because it just ‘makes things better,’ but eventually you get used to that and then you keep chasing something else and the problem never gets better.”

Trying marijuana for the first time in eighth grade, Johnson started spending $60 a month on the drug, smoking with friends every couple of weeks. But after a hard break-up with his girlfriend, Johnson described his use of marijuana, LSD and Xanax as something his body relied on. He notes that he was high almost every day during the summer of his junior year, smoking with friends, at work or alone to “put off dealing with problems” and to calm his diagnosed anxiety.

“At first it started out as being something fun to do with friends in a basement, but then it became like a crutch, and now it’s not so much of a crutch as it is as a consciousness,” Johnson said. “And usually what ends up being the worst highs is when you’re upset, I typically ended up feeling worse after, and more anxious. When I first started doing it it would instantly help out no matter what, but eventually you get used to it and you get caught in the crux.”

The components of marijuana, cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), typically distract people, causing the short-term memory abilities to be temporarily compromised, and often use of the drug increases the risk for an altered memory. Marijuana’s euphoric effect on the brain plays into distraction in its users, resulting in not only the distraction from personal issues, but temporary pain relief, according to Gaffney.

Sophomore George Sanders* uses un-prescribed marijuana to aid his physical pain. Before going to bed, Sanders smokes to relieve a headache or the soreness in his legs from his practice earlier that afternoon. Smoking puts an end to his leg pain, at least for a while, and helps him sleep.

“Three puffs of it and in like 10 minutes, I’m already feeling better,” Sanders said. “It’s not like I use it that often, and I definitely don’t consider myself addicted, but a little bit before bed relieves my pain and helps me sleep better.”

When alcohol or drugs are used as a “go-to” for tackling difficult moments — managing social or interpersonal anxiety and managing physical or emotional pain — an endless cycle is created, according to Gaffney.  A cycle that, if not treated effectively, could lead to anything from strain on relationships, to depression, to memory loss, to near death.

“I think the first place to start [the recovery process] is by opening the conversation about using drugs and alcohol and having honest talks about why people self medicate,” Reed said. “After people have the knowledge around substance abuse and the dangers of self-medication, it’s all about gaining coping skills and support.”