How Substance Use Affects Physical and Mental Health: What Everyone Should Know

By Your Health Magazine

Your Health Magazine

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How Substance Use Affects Physical and Mental Health: What Everyone Should Know

Health effects aren’t reserved for people with addiction. Anyone who drinks or takes drugs could damage their body, in minor or major ways.

Fortunately, there are baby steps you can take to reduce your substance use and avoid experiencing some of these symptoms.

So, here’s what everyone should know about how substance use affects physical and mental health, from the most common symptoms to the hidden impact on daily life.

Understanding Substance Use

When we use drugs or alcohol, we’re engaging in substance use. This counts for all drugs of abuse, including:

• Alcohol
• Cannabis
• Hallucinogens
• Prescription painkillers
• Tobacco
• Cocaine
• Sedatives
• Heroin
• Stimulants
• Inhalants
• Tranquilisers

Any time we get involved with drugs or alcohol, we’re risking dependence or addiction. This isn’t to say that everyone who picks up a drink will become addicted, but it’s important to be aware that the risk is always present.

We use the term “substance use disorder” (SUD) to describe the mental health condition that compels people to keep taking drugs despite the negative impact on their health and wellbeing. You may know this concept as addiction.

Generally, the timeline looks like this: regular use, misuse, dependence, addiction.

However, everyone experiences substances differently, so some people may immediately misuse drugs, and some may spiral into addiction much faster than average.

While the negative impacts of addiction may already be familiar to us, today we want to highlight just how damaging substance use can be, even before dependence develops.

Physical Health Effects of Substance Use

1. Immune system

When we’re using substances, we can experience inflammation and our immune cell activity can be suppressed.

This makes it harder to fight infections, resulting in more periods of illness, and longer recovery times from illnesses and injuries.

2. Major organs

Some of the impacts on major organs may be obvious, such as alcohol damaging the liver, or smoking damaging the lungs.

It doesn’t stop there. Drugs can affect our kidneys, heart, and brain.

While this is much more likely with addiction, we’re still at risk if we’re using substances in any way. To give an example, even moderate alcohol consumption can increase the risk of cancer and heart disease.

3. Sleep and energy levels

Sleep and energy levels have a much bigger impact on your health than you may realise.

After even one drinking session, our sleep is affected, often through a lack of REM sleep. It tends to be harder to fall asleep and stay asleep, and our sleep cycles are disturbed.

This means our bodies don’t have a good opportunity to recover, which is damaging for both our body and mind.

Mental Health Effects of Substance Use

1. Cognitive effects

Substance use interferes with many different cognitive functions in the brain, including concentration, coordination, decision-making, and memory.

As a result, we can feel out of sorts after taking a drug just once, as it can lead to temporary memory loss, poor concentration, etc.

2. Mental health conditions

It’s widely known that drugs and alcohol increase our risk of developing mental health disorders.

They can also worsen symptoms of existing disorders, such as depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, and PTSD.

The Hidden Impact on Daily Life

These physical and mental health effects very often spill into everyday life, affecting:

• Daily routines
• Relationships
• Social life
• Ambitions
• Exercise tolerance
• Work performance

Often, people don’t even realise the impact until they take control of their drinking habits. We adapt to feeling less motivated, less productive, less social.

We may even compare ourselves to people with addiction, and feel as though we’re satisfied in comparison.

The important thing to remember is that your life can always be better. It’s about striving for the best for yourself, and often, that means reducing your substance use.

Reducing Risk Early: What’s Your Plan?

With substance use, early risk reduction is key. It means you can develop healthy habits, and unlearn unhealthy habits, before the problem worsens.

1. Early warning signs

First, have a look for early warning signs, such as:

• Turning to substances when you’re stressed
• Involving substances in every social gathering
• Using drugs or alcohol every day
• Bingeing on drink or drugs

At this point, if you realise you’re dependent on substances, it’s time to get professional help (the best place for this is drug or alcohol detox, such as home-based or residential support).

2. Self-care

If you’re simply looking to improve your drinking behaviours, start to implement habits that will prevent dependence or addiction. Consider:

• Mindfulness: Being present is the foundation of mindfulness. Noticing your environment, your body and your emotions is all part of mindful practice, and it’s proven to reduce stress and anxiety. When you compare this with substances, it’s easy to see why it’s so effective. Substances distract you from your immediate situation, while mindfulness teaches you to appreciate it.
• New routines: Drugs can become so normalised in people’s routines that they reach for them out of habit. For example, many Brits turn to wine every night after work. Creating new routines gives you the freedom to choose healthier patterns for yourself. Start by adjusting your bedtime, journaling before bed, or waking up earlier to do nothing but rest for a few minutes.
• Exercise: Staying active is crucial for avoiding substance misuse. Physical benefits aside (which are endless), it boosts your mood, helping you to realise you don’t need substances to get through the day.

3. Moderation

If you’re reliant on drugs, we’d always recommend total abstinence, as this is the most effective method and is used by addiction treatment centres all over the world.

That being said, for those whose relationship with substances isn’t currently problematic, you can slowly reduce your risk by practising moderation. Some easy ways to reduce your risk are:

• Have sober weeks: Why not go sober for just a week? Prove to yourself that it’s possible, and feel the benefits of a substance-free week, from improved sleep to more energy. If you’re struggling to commit to a sober week, or the week is making you feel much worse than before, you may have developed a dependence. In this case, we strongly encourage you to get professional support.
• Avoid binge drinking: Binge drinking is one of the most dangerous types of drinking behaviours. It’s associated with a much higher risk of addiction and other health conditions. You can enjoy drinking without bingeing; try drinking water between each drink, sticking to the same drink, avoiding shots, and spending time with people who drink more moderately.
• Go to sober socials: In this day and age, sober socials are happening all around us. They’re for drinkers just as much as non-drinkers! Anyone can show up to a sober social every once in a while, and still enjoy drinking with friends (as long as addiction isn’t present).

Conclusion

There’s no pattern of substance use that’s completely risk-free. We have to consider the possible risks of drugs and alcohol regardless of whether we’re heavy binge drinkers or occasional cannabis users.

A healthy place to start is detecting early risks. Consider the red flags, implement healthier habits, and think of creative ways to reduce your substance use. Even better if you have friends who are willing to join you on your journey.