Dual Diagnosis and it’s Adverse effect on Relationships

Dual Diagnosis corrodes everything the addict holds dear including his/her relationships. In case of an addiction, relationships play a cause-and-effect role, and understanding these tendencies is instrumental to controlling the addiction and saving the relationship. Regardless of a specific situation, there will be no priority greater for the addict than the drug or the substance in question. The destruction of addiction is quite far-reaching, and it impacts all the relationships of the addict.

Dual diagnosis or co-morbidity is a condition where an addict is also diagnosed with mental illnesses alongside addiction. These mental illnesses coupled with addictive behaviour re-wire the brain of the addicts and aggravate the already existing violent and unruly behaviour among them. As the addiction progresses, the addict’s behaviour stoops down to a level where they cannot distinguish between the right and the wrong. 

Fractured Relationships with Themselves

Especially among the young addicts, dual diagnosis wreaks a havoc on their relationships with reasons ranging from lashing out on their girlfriends unnecessarily and stealing money from home with a need to buy drugs. Isolation from friends and other students because of bad behaviour caused by drug abuse. It can prove exhausting for a person with dual diagnosis he/she has to maintain two primary relations i.e. one with themselves, and one with the drugs.  They are caught up in a forever struggle between compulsion and balance. This is a profound indication of fractured relationships with themselves.

Lack of Trust 

Lack of trust that lingers between relationships is the greatest impairment that drug addiction triggers in a relationship. Persons with dual diagnosis are psychologically ill and tend to hide their addiction and ill health behind their lies. Getting the truth out of an addict with dual diagnosis can feel like pulling out teeth because these relationships tend to be filled with deception. Fear of judgment or rejection often drives them to choose deception over honesty.

Violent Behaviour

Patients with Dual Diagnosis have reported high rates of offending and violence for years. They reported a lifetime history of high rated violence as compared to patients with psychosis alone. However, the extent to which a person with Dual Diagnosis exhibits violence depends directly on the amount of substance mis-used and the history and duration of abuse. Therefore, the longer the abuse, the bigger impact on the relationships. Many patients with Dual Diagnosis end up with no relationships by the time they have completely surrendered to their addictions.

Getting isolated from Friends

Friends suddenly start disappearing on addicts with Dual Diagnosis both because of the friends’ avoidance and also because of non- availability of time for the addicts. Since the addict’s time is entirely occupied on heeding to his/her compulsions of drug usage, they barely have any time to go and meet friends. Half the time, they are either soaked in the high derived from their drugs or are busy finding money or vendors for the abuse. Hence, shortly after they get addicted, they get isolated from friends. 

In a relationship with an addict, you will likely see that they have become a completely different person than the one you originally knew. This is because addiction is a disease of the brain that alters the cognition and behaviour of the addict in deep, profound ways. They end up solely driven by not only a psychological but also a physiological need to continue abusing the drug at any cost. Even at the cost of deceiving and destroying their relationships with others. Dual Diagnosis is especially a condition where the patients are already predisposed to mental illnesses and violent behaviour thereof. Therefore, it is very unlikely that people with Dual Diagnosis could have good relationships.