Substance Abuse

What Is a Substance Use Disorder?

In order to fully understand the seriousness of this problem within the Deaf community, there needs to be a clear definition of what it means to have a substance use disorder. A “substance” can be alcohol, an illegal drug, or a prescription drug that is misused. A substance use disorder (SUD) is the continued use of any substance for mood-altering purposes despite harmful consequences. It is a type of mental illness characterized by a set of symptoms that indicate an individual keeps using a substance even though its use is causing him or her significant problems. These symptoms include ways of thinking about the substance, behaviors around the substance, and physical signs. An SUD is also a primary, chronic disease with genetic, psychosocial, and environmental factors influencing its development and manifestations. Its symptoms are progressive and potentially fatal.

SUD symptoms can be grouped into four categories: loss of control, social impairment, risky use, and physical effects.

• Loss of control—The individual cannot keep from using the substance. The person might use the substance in larger amounts or for longer times than intended; may want to stop using or has tried several times to stop but has been unsuccessful; may spend a lot of time trying to get, using, or recovering from the effects of the substance; or may experience an intense craving for the substance, especially when in a place where the substance was used in the past.
• Social impairment—The individual suffers social consequences connected to using. For instance, the person may repeatedly not live up to his or her responsibilities at school, work, or home; may keep using the substance even though his or her use causes arguments or gets him or her into trouble with other people; or may give up or reduce involvement in activities or events that used to be important to him or her, just so he or she can use the substance.
• Risky use—The individual keeps using the substance even in dangerous situations. For instance, the individual may put him- or herself at physical risk (such as when drinking and driving) or may keep using the substance even though he or she knows it caused a physical or mental health problem or made one worse.
• Physical effects—The substance use has affected the individual’s body in predictable ways. The person may require a greater amount of the substance to get the same “high” or may experience “withdrawal,” which is a collection of physical symptoms (feeling nauseous, shaky, unable to sit still, etc.) that are so unpleasant that the person uses the substance again in order to stop the withdrawal symptoms.

A person does not have to have all the above symptoms to be diagnosed with an SUD. A diagnosis can be made with as few as two symptoms having occurred during the past 12 months.

...