Mental health and substance use can affect one another.
You may use alcohol or drugs because they seem to help with:
- anxiety;
- depression;
- trauma;
- sleep;
- loneliness;
- difficult memories;
- stress.
But some substances can also:
- worsen anxiety or low mood;
- increase impulsivity;
- cause paranoia or unusual experiences;
- make emotional regulation harder;
- increase vulnerability to self-harm or suicidal thinking.
If your substance use and mental health are connected, it is useful to tell us about both rather than treating them as separate problems.