Dual diagnosis is the term used for anyone with a mental health diagnosis combined with substance addiction. The substance use is often regarded as “self-medicating” with the side effects of psychiatric drugs or the symptoms of the MH disorders. These include PTSD, depression and anxiety, mood disorders, personality disorders, psychosis and more serious conditions.
NOTE: At Hope we accept Depression, Anxiety disorders and most personality disorders together with addiction. However we do not treat psychiatric patients with enduring paranoid schizophrenia and serious self harm.
It is often impossible to separate mental health and addiction because so many Doctors misdiagnose Addiction and confuse the symptoms. We know this because so many clients regain mental stability and normality once they address their addiction.
It is common for people with MH to turn to using addictive and illicit substances to improve coping abilities, help feel better, or decrease and numb feelings. The problem is that self-medicating works at first. It provides the person with relief from their restless bodies and brains. You have pain and problems that are burning out of control, and what you use to put out the fires is gasoline, ultimately making the problems worse.
If you are dealing with a dual diagnosis (aka co-morbidity or co-occurring disorder), it means you have two serious illnesses at the same time and that these two conditions are complicating each other.
In order to successfully manage these separate issues, it is first necessary to identify where one ends and the other begins. It is also important that these two disorders are dealt with concurrently, as failure to treat one can make it almost impossible to treat the other.
“Despite our differences, however, we have found we have much in common. Each illness has symptoms that interfere with our ability to function effectively and relate to ourselves and others. Our impaired functioning has created a series of problems and consequences for us, and we have responded by trying to protect ourselves in unhealthy ways”
The Connection between Addiction and Mental Illness
Cognitive behavioural therapy
“The Twelve Step program offers us hope by providing a path out of the chaos of lives ruled by a dual disorders… Instead of being overwhelmed by the power of our dual disorders, we are invited to find a different Higher Power that will guide is through recovery”
– Anonymous – The Dual Disorders Recovery Book: A Twelve Step Program for Those of Us with Addiction and an Emotional or Psychiatric Illness