Feeling Good: Answers to questions about alcohol, drugs and mental health

What's wrong with drinking if it makes me stress less? Alcohol is a drug that people use to help them relax socially, such as when friends get together. Sometimes people use alcohol to deal with worries or when they are feeling anxious or miserable. Alcohol may help for a while. But if someone really has a depression or anxiety problem, alcohol only covers up the symptoms. After the effects of drinking wear off, those symptoms come back, and could even be worse. You can even get anxious and depressed while you are drinking. If you have anxiety or depressive symptoms, it is not a good solution to wipe them out with alcohol. Drinking alcohol may end up making your symptoms worse. If someone has a mental illness, will drinking make it worse? Drinking small amounts of alcohol is not likely to cause problems for someone with a mental illness. Drinking too much has the same effects as on everybody else, namely increased depression, anxiety, insomnia, as well as affecting their social relationships. Alcohol can also induce inhibitions and increase the risk of a person harming themselves, especially if drinking alone. If you have a mental illness you are in a more vulnerable situation because these symptoms may lead to relapse of your mental illness and possible hospitalisation. For a person with mental illness, just like with everyone else, it is important to look after your mind and body and keep up good relationships with your friends, family and other supports. A good hint is to try to keep track of how much you are drinking and not to drink to wipe yourself out. It is also not a good idea to drink alone. Drinking too much can make your mental illness worse.Is it bad to mix alcohol and other drugs (including medication)?Different drugs act on the brain in different ways. It is not a good idea to mix drugs. Mixing alcohol with other drugs such as speed, ecstasy and heroin can have very serious consequences. The effects of mixing can be unpredictable depending upon how much of each drug you have taken. Mixing alcohol with speed or ecstasy can cause problems such as cramps and headaches. Drugs like sleeping pills when mixed with alcohol can cause your central nervous system to slow down and in some cases you could stop breathing. If you are on medication for anything (physical or mental), it is most important that you check with your doctor about what other drugs you can safely use. As a general rule alcohol (being also a diuretic) can cause prescribed medication to be excreted from your body more rapidly. This may require larger doses of some medications to be prescribed in order to achieve the therapeutic level necessary to treat your condition.Avoid mixing alcohol with illegal or prescription drugs as the combination can have unpredictable and negative effects. To find out what effect alcohol may have on your medication, talk to your doctor. The concurrent presentation of mental illness and the misuse of drug substances is often described as a dual diagnosis. A person experiencing both as problems can be assessed, reviewed and treated at the Bowral Community Health Centre by both the mental health service and the drug health service. A visiting psychiatric registrar works collaboratively with both services to ensure optimal treatment for the patient.There are many ways that you can get help. You could start off by talking to trusted friends or relatives or by seeing a general practitioner. The doctor can give you more information, treat you, or refer you on to another professional.