Some people come into addiction treatment with other issues already in hand. In some cases, this can include mental health issues, including mental disorders such as schizophrenia or manic depression, but it can be hard to diagnose and treat such concerns given the ongoing concern of substance abuse and addiction. Yet the combination of mental health problems and addiction, which is called co-occurring disorders in clinical circles, is a serious problem that must be addressed for best results.
Only by addressing co-occurring disorders in drug rehab can lasting recovery be truly reached.
The coexistence of mental illness and addiction is certainly possible in many a patient. In fact, the occurrence of some sort of mental illness in a person can lead to substance abuse, as tired, desperate people use drugs or alcohol to self-medicate against the effects of certain conditions. The idea of depressed people turning to drink is so common it’s become a cliche, and many other conditions can lead people to use illicit substances to try and escape the symptoms of their illness.
This can prove a problem once the addict enters rehab, particularly if their mental illness was not formally diagnosed before entering treatment. The symptoms of certain mental conditions can be easily mistaken for side-effects of addiction and substance abuse, making a formal diagnosis difficult.
This can also be a problem after a patient has gone through the detox portion of treatment as the symptoms of a mental illness that the patient had suppressed with substance abuse are now unrestrained once more, right in the midst of the difficult process of the rehab treatment.
The answer for this problem of co-occurring disorders is treatment that can address both aspects of the patient’s well-being. There are different approaches for this concern. Some facilities treat addiction while farming out mental healthcare to another facility, with the patient being treated simultaneously for two different concerns by two different doctors or teams.
Other facilities treat both at once, with the same clinical team handling both addiction treatment and mental care, trying to treat the patient as a whole, rather than two separate layers.
There’s no wrong approach here, though one might work better for an individual patient than the other. The important thing is addressing both concerns, rather than letting one fester underneath the treatment for the other, only to burst forth and undermine treatment or recovery down the line.
After all, if a patient leaves rehab with their mental illness unaddressed, how long before they’re driven to self-medicate against it with substance abuse once more?
At Good Landing Recovery, treating co-occurring disorders is considered a high priority for those patients presenting symptoms of this concern. The patient will have options on how to treat each side of their co-occurring issues, but treating both is imperative for greater recovery.