I am an adult of 24 yo male. I have a history of substance abuse. I have somatoform disorder diagnosed by psychiatrist of cmc vellore. I used to have panic attacks while trying to quit the substances I used. After finishing the course of anti-depressant (prothiaden) I faced palpitations for a long time. I was happy and returning back to normal. I was drug free for almost 2 years. Now suddenly something terrible has happened and I have lost hope. I cannot cope with it. I have started smoking heavily. I don't get hungry. I don't eat much. I vomit sometimes. I have lost weight almost 4 kg in 4 months. I feel sickishly tired. I feel like I have to make an effort in everything I do. Be it taking a bath or having my meal, it seems like a 'work' to me. Again i'm having suicidal thoughts. I feel guilty. I feel despair and helpless. I don't feel like doing anything. I face difficulty in sleeping. Without that substance I cannot fall asleep anymore. I don't know what to do.

Dr. Saul PereiraPsychologist48yrs exp

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For you to come out of the substance abuse completely, you need to abstain from the substance for nearly three years without a relapse. But you should have also worked on your issues with some therapy. Somatization disorder has no medical reason and definitely has psychological and abuse reasons to contend with it. Therefore you need to get some counseling while in medical treatment too. If it is too difficult for you, you could seek admission in a rehabilitation center. You do not mention what type of drugs you abuse but when you enter hard drugs, you are into the troublesome area of addiction. I think that impulse control under the influence these substances can be very limited. The danger of you doing more harmful things can be heightened. Before you get into that kind of behaviour, you please quit at the earliest. To enable that I suggest that you go for immediate rehabilitation to a recovery centre and stay there for at least 6 months until you are all clear and clean. Even after that you must continue addiction counselling for at least three years to completely remove the physical and psychological conditioning and craving. You will be told and taught new lifestyles, schedules, habits etc. To totally recover. You must work on the oral issue, the rigid value system, the genetic factor and the script issue. Many people will not be able to resolve drug addiction in particular if they do not reach their ?hitting rock bottom?, i.e. The worst stage in their addiction to finally want to reform. Unfortunately for some unlucky few that can be death. So do be careful and do not delay seeking help now. If there are relapses, do not get too alarmed and give up. You must again persevere and fight this battle until you come out victorious. Your family members and medical fraternity must be there for you right through this recovery. You will also need to attend narcotics anonymous meetings for a long time too after the treatment is over. I also suspect that you may be into an anger-related depression and that can induce suicidal thoughts. |get help soon but combine therapies.  

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