It’s a straightforward question: what is SUD?
You hear about it often but don’t always hear it referred to as SUD. Is it a new vaccine? Is it an app? What is it? When people say “alcoholism, addiction, addict,” they’re talking about SUD.
Simply, SUD stands for substance use disorder. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, SUD is “a mental disorder that affects a person’s brain and behavior, leading to a person’s inability to control their use of substances such as legal or illegal drugs, alcohol, or medications.”
Let’s translate.
When someone is struggling with alcoholism, which is something that is visual, it almost always has to do with their brain. Their brain has a mental disorder, that disorder is the driving force behind the uncontrollable consumption of alcohol. That’s SUD at work.
Research has discovered that approximately 50% of individuals struggling with substance abuse are also experiencing a co-occurring mental disorder. “Co-occurring” refers to when two things are happening at the same time. For example, depression and alcoholism or anxiety and opioids.
In our previous post, 60%, we established that more than half of our calls involve some form of a mental health disorder. This is a new trend.
At Union First, we pride ourselves on promoting education and awareness. It’s critical that you know as much as you can about substance use disorder, especially since it may be impacting your members.
For help or answers to your questions, you can visit www.unionfirst.net or call 1-855-215-2023.