Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) published a report in 2015 based on the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). NSDUH defines illicit drugs as marijuana/hashish, cocaine (including crack), inhalants, hallucinogens, heroin, or prescription-type drugs used non-medically. Heavy alcohol use is defined as drinking five or more drinks on the same occasion (i.e., at the same time or within a couple of hours of each other) on 5 or more days in the past 30 days. In this report, dependence on or abuse of alcohol or illicit drugs is referred to as a “Substance Use Disorder (SUD).” Combined data from 2008 to 2012 indicate that a yearly average of 8.7% of full-time employees ages 18 to 64 used alcohol heavily in the last month, 8.6% used illicit drugs in the last month, and 9.5% were dependent on or abused alcohol or illicit drugs in the last year. The highest rates of last month’s heavy alcohol use among full-time employees ages 18 to 64 were in mining (17.5%) and construction industries (16.5%). The highest rates of last month’s illicit drug use were found in accommodations and food services industry (19.1%). The employees in the accommodations and food services industry (16.9%) had the highest rates of last year’s SUD.
Top 10 Industries With Substance Use Disorder (SUD)
(Rates of past-year SUD among full-time adult workers ages 18 to 64, 2008 to 2012, by industry category)
- Accommodations and food services: 16.9% of workers (also the highest rate of illicit drug use, with 19.1% of workers having used in the previous month, and the highest rates of past-year SUD)
- Construction: 14.3% (second only to miners in heavy alcohol use, at 16.5%)
- Arts, entertainment, and recreation: 12.9%
- Mining: 11.8% (miners had the highest rate of heavy alcohol use in the previous month, 17.5%)
- Utilities: 11.5%
- Management: 11.4%
- Retail trade: 10.5%
- Agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting: 10.5%
- Wholesale trade: 10.4%
- Other services (except public administration): 10.1%
Depression in the Workplace
It is important to make sure your mental health is well and since we spend the majority of our waking hours at our job it is vital to have a good workplace. Granted any workplace can seem damaging if you are also not taking care of yourself outside of the workplace, so it is important to get help if you need it. If your job causes you anxiety, depression, or any other disorder do not hesitate to get help. People with mood disorders such as anxiety and stress tend to also have a substance abuse problem, this is called co-occurring disorders, to learn more click here. This is not to say if you wanted to do one of these jobs that you cannot, everyone can handle different levels of stress, and some things better than others. Make yourself aware of the benefits and cons of any profession you want to go into.
Top 10 Careers With Depression
Researchers looked at insurance claims of a population of 214,413 people around the world to determine which professions had the highest rate of depression (Wulsin, 2014). They looked at 55 different industries and found that the rates of depression ranged from 6.9 to 16.2%. This number may be even higher since only those who filed insurance claims and sought treatment for depression were examined.
- Public Transit: 16.2%
- Real Estate: 15.5%
- Social Work: 14.8%
- Manufacturing: 14.4%
- Personal Services: 14.4%
- Legal Services: 13.7%
- Publishing: 12.3%
- Healthcare: 11.5%
- Engineering: 10.9%
- Education: 10.1%
