Addiction and Mental Health

Due to the large negative stigma that comes along with mental health, many people would not often consider addictive behavior as a mental health concern. Although some societies have made it acceptable to consume large amounts of alcohol, the acceptance of such behaviors does not dismiss the fact that addiction is a serious issue in many societies. As we saw from our presentation last week on the mortality of men in the former USSR, drinking has been hammered in as a significant part of the culture. Imagine sitting at a table with one other friend and feeling compelled to finish an entire bottle of vodka in order to avoid being impolite. Does this remind you a little of those good ole’ college days. During my undergraduate degree, I went to a school that praised drinking, lots of it… at tailgates, at dorm dances, at the bars that would let anyone in with a fake id. My friends and I all took advantage of this new independence one often finds in college and loved every minute of it. Like the Russians, college students binge drink, and may think it rude to leave a bottle unfinished. However, for most college students this behavior ends when college ends (or possibly until a reunion with your college friends at the next season’s football game). For others, the behavior known to them as a good time in college haunts them for the rest of their lives. Liver damage, prolonged alcohol abuse, inability to simply be a social drinker, AA meetings… I had a friend in college once tell me that her dad (an alum from the same school) was in AA, he would travel all over the country for work and would attend meetings wherever he was. Apparently, he found fellow alumni at every AA meeting he went to around the country… scary hu? So my point is, when a society makes something socially acceptable it is not viewed as a mental health issue, but when something is viewed as crazy (Britney Spear shaving her head perhaps) the action is ostracized. Do we need to make anxiety disorders, personality disorders, psychotic disorders as acceptable as alcohol consumption in order to make them less stigmatized? Or do we need to add a harsher stigma to addictive behaviors to emphasize the need of recognizing them as mental health issues as well?