Psychiatrist: The new drug peddler in town

Normally I am dead against discussing psychiatric conditions in public forum because I firmly believe that, hypochondriacs, that we all are, has the potential to cause more harm than good. But, with mental health “awareness” spreading fast, I am forced to break the rule and venture into what I am not at all qualified for, as the subject has serious social implications.

As I have written about the human brain, many people — especially parents — often ask me about the child psychology. As they mistakenly presume that I can understand psychiatric jargon, I end up with medical papers. And, the set lying on my table now is really disturbing me.

It belongs to a young individual, undergoing serious psychiatric treatment for bipolar mood disorder since last two years. Though bipolar mood disorder is now very much in vogue, I would like to point out to the uninitiated that it is a brain state that exhibits irregular and extreme swings of mood.

It has mania at one end, depression at the other, and an out-of-control mind helplessly oscillating between the two. It is a serious malaise beyond the scope of psychological counselling and needs management through psychiatric medicinal treatment.  

Unfortunately, as I try and understand the situation better, I see that the diagnosis continues beyond to cannabis dependence disorder, opioid dependence disorder, nicotine dependence disorder, Benzodiazepine addiction and alcohol discrete use.

If I translate this above list in simple terms, it describes a regular kid who has gone down the slippery path of recreational gratification through addictive substances commonly found in a hostel of a design or engineering school. The problem is, life of a kid with addiction problem is a roller coaster ride, with highs of addiction and lows of withdrawal. His mental state would have mania of pleasure post-consumption followed by stupor and depression when the effect of the drug recedes.

If we look at how bipolar mood disorder expresses itself, it becomes really confusing because cyclic mood swings of a drug addict and a bipolar mood disorder case are extremely similar. Both have oscillating mood swings, one due to arrival and departure of psychoactive drugs and other due to imbalance in brain chemistry.

This issue has been further confused by bipolar mood disorder increasing addiction susceptibility, as persons suffering from mood swings are often found to resort to drugs to find relief from symptoms. So, bipolar mood disorder and drug addiction have a chicken and egg relationship, making it difficult to differentiate one from the other.

This means that there is a great possibility that simple drug addiction can get diagnosed and treated as bipolar mood disorder. As I look at the completely ineffective treatment offered to the kid since two years, I see a whole range of psychoactive substances that deal with mania, seizers, convulsions, schizophrenia and other mood disorders, acetylcholine-blockers and some nicotine. And here is where my discomfort starts.

In case of drug addiction being misdiagnosed as bipolar mood disorder, what the patient ends up is replacing one set of psychoactive chemicals with another, both with side-effects that seriously alters quality of life, while, in a very crude way, life of a cannabis smoker may not be as bad as the one living under heavy burden of medicines that are equally inescapable.

With drugs becoming common on our campuses and a lot of psychiatrists offering de-addiction services, the picture I drew above is not at all rare. I strongly request psychiatrists to evaluate the situation, as it needs expert attention.  

If not, in all likelihood, psychiatrists may end up becoming new psychoactive substance paddlers in the town. We will just be replacing one set of drugs with other and ruining precious young lives.

City-based science nomad who tries to find definitive answers
samir.shukla@icloud.com