LITTLE ROCK (KATV) \u2014 As Mental Health Awareness Month begins, health professionals in Arkansas are drawing attention to the strong connection between addiction and mental health challenges, warning that many residents still are not receiving the help they need.<\/p>\n
According to data cited by providers, roughly one in four adults in Arkansas struggles with mental health issues, placing the state near the bottom nationwide for frequent mental distress.<\/p>\n
At The Haven Detox Central Arkansas, leaders said those struggles often overlap with substance use disorders.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is very common for them to have both \u2014 usually one does not occur without the other,\u201d said Tiffany Terry, executive director of the facility.<\/p>\n
Terry said patients frequently fall into a cycle, either using drugs or alcohol to cope with untreated mental health conditions or worsening their mental health through substance use. Because of that, she emphasized the importance of treating both issues together.<\/p>\n
\u201cTypically, you don\u2019t treat one without the other,\u201d Terry said.<\/p>\n
Even when people recognize they need help, barriers remain. Stigma and misunderstandings about what treatment looks like often prevent individuals from seeking care.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s a misconception that it\u2019s, you know, you\u2019re wearing a straitjacket and thrown into something you don\u2019t want,\u201d Terry said. \u201cWhereas really, mental health treatment is aimed at addressing the goals that you have for yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Angela Hardy, that connection became clear after years of neglecting her mental health, which contributed to her addiction.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just kind of put my mental health on the back burner,\u201d Hardy said. \u201cI took medication before, and then I just fell off and quit taking it, and it just kept me deep in my addiction.\u201d<\/p>\n
A turning point came after the death of her sister, which she said forced her to confront the consequences of untreated mental health struggles.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen she died, it made me really open up my eyes and see that I didn\u2019t want to die like I thought I did,\u201d Hardy said.<\/p>\n
Now in recovery, Hardy said treatment helped her address both her addiction and mental health, allowing her to rebuild her life and support others facing similar challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get to help other people and let them know that we can do this,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Terry said recovery often begins before someone ever enters a treatment facility, starting with recognizing the need for help and taking the first step toward seeking support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LITTLE ROCK (KATV) \u2014 As Mental Health Awareness Month begins, health professionals in Arkansas are drawing attention to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628254,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[97,259,260],"class_list":["post-628253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}