Online Reporter
Annie Faith Majoni
SUBSTANCE-INDUCED psychosis is a mental health condition where substance use causes a person to lose touch with reality, leading to hallucinations, delusions and disorganised behaviours.
Tinotenda Harahwa (not real name), who uses marijuana, crystal methamphetamine(guka), relates: “I hear commanding voices or sometimes see an elderly person like a goblin instructing me to hurt others. That is why I am sometimes violent and feel that the Holy Spirit speaks to me.”
His statement reveals the onset of psychosis, and for most patients abusing drugs, experiencing psychosis is a deeply distressing experience, not only for those affected, but also for their families and care providers.
Most people experiencing substance-induced psychosis have episodes of violence, shouting or talking to self, have a history of lack of sleep, appetite, wandering and being overly religious.
While some acute psychotic episodes are short-lived, others become persistent and evolve into chronic conditions like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, leaving a lasting mark on the individual’s quality of life.
For those facing substance-induced psychosis (SIP), the journey to recovery is often complicated by layers of stigma, broken social bonds, and community exclusion.
Historically, bizarre behaviour (experience of hallucinations, delusions and paranoia) was seen through the lens of demonology, moral failing, or even witchcraft, leading to cruel treatments such as exorcism or public punishment.
Although our understanding has shifted towards the medical model as crisis management for SIP, there is still a need to promote social control.
Helping professions to date walk a delicate line in providing compassionate care while also acting as agents of societal norms and regulations.
Community psychology emphasises prevention and promotion, reducing exposure to risk factors like poverty, stigma, and drug availability, while strengthening protective factors such as social support and coping skills.
Recovery is not just about managing symptoms; it is about achieving a life of meaning.
It involves personal goals of hope, healing, connection, and empowerment.
Recovering from SIP is not just a matter of medical intervention and crisis management in mental health institutions.
Despite adopting a multi-sectoral approach from the Zimbabwe National Drug Master Plan (2020-2025), behaviour change remains elusive because of complex social, cognitive, and structural barriers.
Recovery from SIP is about rebuilding identity, restoring power, and fostering inclusive environments that enable healing.
SIP often pushes individuals to the margins of society, reinforcing alienation and demoralisation.
Effective recovery, therefore, must include more than clinical care.
It must promote community integration, empowerment, and belonging.
Community psychologists advocate for transforming high-risk zones to drug and substance abuse (DSA).
Countries like Italy and Argentina have pioneered policy reforms that moved away from isolating institutional care toward community-based mental health systems.
This shift has made space for people with serious mental health challenges to reclaim their lives within society, not apart from it.
Drawing from ecological and empowerment frameworks, this model of care for SIP patients recognises that sustainable recovery is rooted in supportive environments, inclusive peer networks, and services that affirm one’s sense of agency.
Though the Zimbabwe Multi-sectoral Drug and Substance Abuse Plan (2024-2030) refers to the social ecological model (SEM), it does not explore community-level protective factors like positive youth development and peer mentoring.
The LEARN principles of the Zimbabwe Multi-sectoral Drug and Substance Abuse Plan (2024-2030) emphasise empowerment, adaptiveness and non-stigmatisation, which resonate with community psychology values of inclusion and participatory decision making.
Community psychology emphasises that inclusion in this context means more than access.
It requires intentional strategies that challenge stigma and encourage interaction between individuals with mental health problems and the broader community.
Supported socialisation activities have shown great promise in combating loneliness and rebuilding interpersonal relationships disrupted by psychosis and substance use.
The principle of power is central in the recovery of serious mental health challenges like schizophrenia and bipolar affective disorder (BAD), which can evolve due to drug and substance abuse.
Zimbabwe’s Multisectoral Approach to drug and substance takes a top-down approach, which assumes that policy and information lead to behaviour change.
The plan centralises power in institutions whilst limiting community-driven programming and grassroots empowerment.
Patients in recovery of SIP often default treatment because most interventions proffered limit their self-determination, with decisions about their lives made for them, not with them.
Thus, empowerment-based approaches from community psychology, such as access to education, employment, housing, and peer-led support, will restore control and choice to those in recovery.
In the face of substance-induced psychosis, communities must rise as active agents of change.
Recovery is possible not in isolation, but in solidarity.
Through inclusive policies, culturally responsive care, and environments that affirm human dignity, we can foster healing pathways that are not only clinical but profoundly communal.
The writer is a community psychologist intern with the Allied Health Practitioners Council of Zimbabwe.
