Psychiatric Illness with Substance Misuse Essay

Psychiatric Illness with Substance Misuse - Essay Example Jenny is well known in psychiatric services, has a long history of substance misuse and 3 hospital admissions –the last being in October 2010. In this essay, I am going to focus on the last few years of my client journey and the period from her last admission to hospital to where she is now. I will explore how she came to this point from her perspective and analyze the information gathered in interviews. Due to illicit substance misuse and non-compliance with her treatment, Jenny's mental state deteriorated leading to a hospital admission. When discussing her drug addiction problem, Jenny talked about various stressors in her life prior to admission to hospital and using drugs to escape from problems and not being able to break the cycle of dependence. Jenny talked about her drug habit and how it affected her mental state and behavior. She acknowledged prior to her admission to hospital that she started to feel negative about herself, neglect her personal hygiene and increasin gly feel agitated and angry. At that time, she continued to drink alcohol and use crack cocaine and cannabis as she found it difficult to overcome her cravings and was not compliant with her treatment. She reported feeling threatened by fellow female occupants at her supported accommodation and felt they were trying to harm her. Her record showed that on admission she was aroused, agitated, talking to self, trying to kill some insect on her shoes and responding to unknown stimuli saying that there were spiders around her body. Substance misuse affects people’s mental health in relation to how they see themselves, their mood and behavior.