Stress, Vulnerability, and “Normal Deviations”-

1. Stress, Vulnerability, and “Normal Deviations”- (Understanding Drugs and Mental Health in Six Minutes…)

2. Dual-Diagnosis is an expression that describes the institutions,not the patient.

3. Mental Health Sector Alcohol and Other Drug Sector

4. Mental Health Sector Alcohol and Other Drug Sector Corrective Services

5. Mental Health Sector Alcohol and Other Drug Sector Triple-Diagnosis? Corrective Services

6. Normal Distribution- Bell curve.

7. Normal Distribution- I.Q. scores.

8. Normal Distribution- human gestation period- (live births).

9. Normal Distribution- height, (Western-European adults).

10. Normal Distribution- dog socialization, (American Pit-Bulls). Most naturally occurring measurements of physical or behavioural characteristics (like height, IQ, length of tongue, etc) follow a normal distribution.

11. Republican Party Analysis of U.S. Election, 2000.

12. The effect of lighting a cigarette upon bus arrival times. A B

13. DSM:IV and the range of human behaviour and belief. Normal Illness Illness

14. The Stress Vulnerability Model.

15. Psychological and Physiological Responses to Environmental Stressors.

16. Stress, Anxiety and Depression may motivate us to modify our environment.

17. If you can’t alter your external environment, you may use techniques designed to “internally” modify the levels of stressyou are experiencing.

18. Some use more immediate means to alter their state of consciousness.

19. Environmental Factors modulate genetic predispositions, potentially shifting any organism either up or down the Stress / Vulnerability Gradient.

20. Our genes are not our destiny. Instead they “gift” each of us a wide range of potential. Our environment determines which of these genetic potentials are expressed, and when, and how. Our position on the Stress / Vulnerability gradient is initially determined largely by our genetic “loading” and the effects of any neurological injury or insults received in the womb, during birth, or in early infancy. Our position can shift markedly in either direction as the impacts of these “predispositions” are constantly inhibited or encouraged by environmental factors.

21. Social Hierarchies may also be modeled as a pyramid. For social organisms, important environmental influences may relate to status, and inclusion in a group. <Alpha Status Ranking: Dominance Hierarchy <Omega Animal studies demonstrate that confident, socially dominant individuals whose status is rewarded have elevated levels of Dopamine in their cortex, and are less inclined to self-administer cocaine or morphine, compared to those individuals who are under chronic stress or who suffer the highest levels of social defeat, isolation and/or victimization.

22. Social isolation, disconnection, and repeated social defeat are all risk factors for psychosis and other symptoms of mental illness.

23. Social inclusion, extended families, rewarding relationships, and other broad social supports can outweigh the effects of pre-existingvulnerabilities.

24. Some environments greatly elevate stress, or are characterized by alternating periods of “Hypo-stress” with short bursts of“Hyper-stress”.

25. Some environments are deliberately designed to induce adverse changes in mental state.

26. The same social and environmental stressors that increase susceptibility to mental illness, can also encourage problematic or dependent patterns of drug use.

27. 18.7% of America’s homeless are veterans of war, and veterans are more than twice as likely to be homeless as those in the general population. With 141,000 homeless war veterans in America, there are currently more troops living rough on U.S. streets than there are serving in Iraq.

28. If you lack the social and economic means to alter your environment, it is always easy to alter your perceptions of that environment.

29. Most people use drugs to regulate their mood.

30. Drug use can increase or decrease our individual vulnerability to symptoms of mental illness. It depends on the drug, the person, the dose and frequency of use, and the setting. -- < Me ill. > Me well again.

31. Non-medical drug use may be functional, relaxing or socially enabling. Sometimes, it can prove to be problematic, stressful and socially isolating. Illicit drug use may increase susceptibility to mental illness not only through acute intoxication, but also through chronic use, through withdrawal, or through other factors, such as poverty, or fear of arrest .

32. Drug use may be one of many environmental factors that can increase or decrease our vulnerability to symptoms of mental illness. When problematic patterns of use evolve from a “coping strategy”, this may be a symptom of an intolerable environment or social circumstances in which the person feels powerless to realistically effect any change.

33. Understanding Co-Morbidity in one sentence… Treating problematic drug use, or mental illness, in isolation from each other, and without addressing broader social and economic circumstances, is treating the symptoms, not the causes, of “co-morbid” disorders.

34. Paul Dessauer Outreach Coordinator [outreach@wasua.com.au] WASUA West Australian Substance Users Association