Mental Health Issues resulting in Substance Abuse

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Mental Health Issues resulting in Substance Abuse

Homelessness often leads to substance abuse because people living on the streets use drugs or alcohol to cope with their tough situations. The stress and trauma of being homeless make it hard to avoid these things or even quit using these substances. Without a home, money, stable support system, it's challenging to get help for addictions. With this constant cycle of abusing the use of these substances, it results in mental illness. This makes it even harder for homeless people to get back on their feet, resulting in a cycle of homelessness and substance abuse resulting to mental illness, causing the ability to stop and find a will to do so even harder. 

Different types of mental illnesses: 

  • anxiety and/or depression
  • PTSD 
  • Bipolar Disorder 
  • Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)
  • Schizophrenia 
  • Etc. 

statistics: 

  •  257,000 homeless people suffer from severe mental illness and/ or a chronic substance abuse. 
  • Homeless people= higher risk for opioid overdose 
  • 1/3 homeless have problems with alcohol and/or drugs 
  • 2/3 lifetime struggle of alcohol and/ or drug abuse 
  • 38%= alcohol abuse
  • 26%= drug abuse 

Being homeless brings the feeling of being alone, feeling like a burden, and that there is no way of getting help/ no one wanting to help because of the situation they are in. Causing them to believe they are seen as less than a human being . 

Resources: 

Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness (PATH)- funds people with serious mental illness that are homeless.

Treatment for Individuals Experiencing Homelessness (TIEH)- provides access to mental and substance use disorders treatment for homeless with serious mental illness

Rose City Resource Center 

Homelessness often leads to substance abuse because people on the streets use drugs or alcohol to handle their tough situations that they tend to go through on their own. The stress of being homeless makes it hard to avoid or quit their substances. Without a home, it's tough to get help, without a support system it's tough to ask for help or have motivation for help. Mental illnesses make this problem even worse since they can cause and result from homelessness and substance abuse. This creates a constant cycle where people face these challenges that most of the time come hand in hand. To help, we need to find solutions that address homelessness, substance abuse, and mental illness all together, so people can break free from this cycle and find stability. These resources are a good starting point that we should utilize and start making a change for a large portion of the population. 

References: 

https://americanaddictioncenters.org/rehab-guide/homeless 

https://www.breaktime.org/post/the-crushing-cycle-of-homelessness-and-mental-illness?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwyJqzBhBaEiwAWDRJVIdl0bfRsi09PegGUrz2cbYBBHN9PyDxK5eWXNaJrHU3APcCjR53qBoCf9AQAvD_BwE 

https://www.usa.edu/blog/mental-health-statistics/ 

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/most-homeless-people-have-mental-health-disorders-2024a100089h?form=fpf 

https://www.samhsa.gov/homelessness-programs-resources 






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