Louisiana facing ‘epidemic proportions’ of substance use, mental health disorders

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – A recent study released by the Louisiana Violence Experiences survey (LaVEX) shows that substance abuse and mental health issues are at epidemic proportions across the state. The data was taken from a 2023 survey, which asked over a thousand Louisiana residents across the state about their alcohol and drug use, along with their mental health.

Anita Raj, the executive director of the Newcomb Institute at Tulane University, is the author of this study. She tells WAFB that one of the bigger concerns she has is the increase in working aged men struggling with substance abuse and mental health.

“It’s increasing everywhere, but it is particularly high here,” Raj says. “Suicide has gone up in our state and that overdose deaths have gone up in our state. So, this is something that we are not tackling. Despite having the data and what these data add, the one from our study adds how pervasive it is for the general population.”

The data shows one in three Louisianans binge drink, one in eight use illicit drugs, one in 11 have severe anxiety/depression, and one in 11 reported thoughts of suicide in the last year. Raj says mental health and substance use go hand in hand.

“We have a disproportionate representation of men who are suicidal in our state – and I really want to highlight that this is the working age population of men,” Raj says. She says this study helps to highlight the importance of treating underlying mental health issues in conjunction with treating addiction.

Travis Frost, a Navy veteran who was injured on duty, says after he was prescribed opioids, he was hooked, and later turned to other drugs like heroin. Frost is not even close to the only one whose life has been upended by a debilitating addiction. He says it all started with mental health issues not being addressed, and the drugs exacerbated that.

“A lot of the drug use, and drinking was to numb the pain, not just the physical pain but the emotional pain – the mental anguish that I dealt with,” Frost says. “All that does, it’s like putting a band aid on – what’s the true underlying cause of what’s going on up here.”

Frost says after returning home from active duty, that’s when things began to change. He says he lost everything, including his wife, two children, and his home because of the intense control that anxiety, depression and substances had on his life. The dual diagnosis of those disorders allowed him to be treated on all fronts. Now, he is over two years sober and mending those relationships.

“Anything I want to do, I get to do now today, I don’t have anything that has that control over my life. I’m free,” Frost says.

Matthew Russell is currently going through in-patient recovery at Avenues Rehab Center but will be done with his program on February 8. He says he lost his entire family to overdoses and didn’t want his mother to have to bury him as well. He says even through losing his family and friends to addiction, it still wasn’t enough for him to make a change. It also wasn’t easy once he decided to make the change.

“It’s intimidating, but it wasn’t deep enough to make me quit. All that information, all the people I lost, all the things I went through, none of that was big enough. I was tired. I was tired, and you gotta get tired,” Russell says. “I ain’t never been this happy in my life.”

Dr. Raj says Louisiana needs better access and more focused services with an emphasis on substance use and suicide prevention.

If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction or suicidal thoughts, call 988. Those operators are trained to help you get through any crisis and direct you to the proper resources. Both Frost and Russell say the hardest part was asking for help because they both wanted to get better on their own and in their own way, but since they did, they have found a community to get through the challenges with as well.

Click here to report a typo. Please include the headline.

Click here to subscribe to our WAFB 9 News daily digest and breaking news alerts delivered straight to your email inbox.

link