Signs of substance use disorder can include:
Substance use disorders affect physical and mental health, as well as an individual’s behavior(s).
Physical Signs:
- Sudden or rapid weight loss
- Insomnia, laziness, inability to sleep
- Loss of appetite or change in eating habits
- Trembling/shaking hands
- Strange body odor
- Extreme hyperactivity
- More talkative than usual
- Slurred speech
- Lack of coordination
- Needle marks and/or abscesses
- Excessive sweating
- Vomiting
- Runny nose and watery eyes
- Excessive scratching
- Poor hygiene
- Lack of physical fitness
Emotional Signs:
- Irritability
- Overly defensive
- Poor stress management
- Loss of interest in pleasurable activities
- Minimizing negative consequences
- Blaming others
- Confusion
- Loss of reality
- Excessive anger
- Rapid shifts in mood
- Emotionally fragile
- Easily agitated
- Closed-Off
- Emotional reactions that don’t fit the situation
Behavioral Signs:
- Poor work/school performance
- Sudden changes in attitude
- Oversensitivity to normal events
- Forgetfulness
- Paranoia
- Secretive or suspicious behavior
- Changes in friends
- Legal problems
- Isolating
- Financial problems
- Changes in reliability
- Avoids eye contact
- Chooses to be absent from family functions
- Avoids long events or trips
- Attracted to different social scenes or circles
If you recognize any of these signs in yourself or others, you may suffer from a substance use disorder or poly substance use disorder and require comprehensive treatment. It is important to recognize the development of your physical dependence on substances in order to safely recover.
The DSM-VI guidelines for diagnosing substance use disorder require that an individual have significant impairment or distress from their drug use. They must also have experienced two of the symptoms below in a given year:
As we know, there is a distinctive pattern of use for those addicted to most substances, however, there is different criteria for diagnosing specific substance use disorders (i.e. opioid use disorder, alcohol use disorder, methamphetamine use disorder, etc.). Substance use disorders can be at varying levels of severity, for different lengths of time; it is not likely for all substance users to score similarly against the criteria for a substance use disorder.
Criteria for Identifying a Substance Use Disorder
- Using more of a substance than planned, or using a substance for a longer interval than desired
- Inability to cut down despite desire to do so
- Spending substantial amount of the day obtaining, using, or recovering from substance use
- Cravings or intense urges to use
- Repeated usage causes or contributes to an inability to meet important social, or professional obligations
- Persistent usage despite user’s knowledge that it is causing frequent problems at work, school, or home
- Giving up or cutting back on important social, professional, or leisure activities because of use
- Using in physically hazardous situations, or usage causing physical or mental harm
- Persistent use despite the user’s awareness that the substance is causing or at least worsening a physical or mental problem
- Tolerance: needing to use increasing amounts of a substance to obtain its desired effects
- Withdrawal: characteristic group of physical effects or symptoms that emerge as amount of substance in the body decreases
*If you have experienced two or more of the above symptoms, you may have a substance use disorder and should contact us immediately.
Level of Substance Use Disorder Severity: the more symptoms that apply, the more severe the substance use disorder is.
2 or more symptoms = mild substance use disorder
5-7 symptoms = moderate substance use disorder
8+ symptoms = severe substance use disorder
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