The kinship Between Mental Illness and Substance Abuse and why treatment in a specialised rehab is important
According to an NBER report, mental health patients at some point in their lives are responsible for consuming 38 percent of alcohol, 44 percent of cocaine and 40 percent of cigarettes. The connection between mental illness and substance abuse has been long established and plays a vital role in determining the degree of abuse. Each kind of a mental illness induced addiction comes with its own set of unique causes and symptoms, as well as treatment methods.
Signs of addiction coupled with dual diagnosis include
- Sudden changes in behaviour
- Cognitive disabilities
- Difficulty in managing everyday tasks
- Self-de-socialisation
- Neglecting health and hygiene
- Dismal thinking
- Refusal to seek treatment
- Suicidal ideation
- Erratic and impulsive behaviours
- Financial issues
- Poor academic/work performance
General reasons why mentally ill patients resort to substance abuse
- Marijuana is used by depressed patients to numb their pain.
- Patients with a history of panic attacks abuse
- The depressed patient who uses marijuana to numb the pain benzodiazepines like Xanax or Valium to manage, control or prevent such attacks.
- Social situations cause anxiety in some patients who abuse alcohol to face such situations.
- People who cannot manage everyday tasks with ease or people with low cognitive abilities resort to Adderall, cocaine or crystal meth today increase their drive to get things done
Reasons why mental illness is a common occurrence in addicts
Mental illnesses and addiction are together a common occurrence because one disorder triggers the other. For example: Substance abuse or addiction creates situations where the addict often becomes a victim of rape. These incidents create serious psychological issues like PTSD, depression, eating disorders among others.
Certain drugs like crystal meth and alcohol create depression among the users as they wear off. Depression symptom intensifies overtime with prolonged usage of such drugs. The life changing consequences such as HIV or Hepatitis C resulting from unprotected sex or exchange of needles during abuse induce mental illnesses such as depression and grief in addicts.
Erratic behaviour and poor decision-making skills are a common side effect of addiction which cause addicts to land legal issues. Consequences of legal issues creates anxiety in addicts in addition to addiction.
Often, drugs used to treat certain general sicknesses like cancer cause mental illnesses such as depression, paranoia and delusions as side effects. Certain mood-altering drugs are responsible for changing the brain chemistry over time and causing mental issues in users. Therefore, each of the addictive and mental disorders are triggered by each other and are bound to intensify with time due to prolonged usage.
Problem with dual-diagnosis
By far, the most dangerous outcome of dual diagnosis is the increased incidence of violent behaviour in patients either causing self-harm or harm to others in many cases. Moreover, the ignorance of the intensity of the disease drives patients to resort to self-medications for their mental and addiction issues. This attitude could be dangerous pattern as it could create a whole new batch of problems for the patient.
Why is treatment at rehab important?
Co-occurring diseases should be treated differently. A number of overlapping factors could be responsible for aggravating a mental health or substance use disorder making the symptoms worse if left untreated. The symptoms of addiction and dual diagnosis disorder being similar, it could be hard to tell what is what unless trained clinicians are at work.
Trained clinicians are adept at working their way with dual diagnosis patients to effectively address their psychological and physiological issues simultaneously while deploying tools to help them achieve and maintain recovery. They also dive deep to fins the root cause of the addiction in patients and help them develop necessary skills and coping strategies to avoid relapse in future.
For patients with dual-diagnosis and a high-risk nature, its important to seek out treatment at a rehab facility with extensive dual-diagnosis experience as the actual treatment starts with a detox following withdrawal, the symptoms of which could prove fatal without medical supervision.
If you or a loved one is in search of a well-developed rehab facility with highly experienced clinicians for dual diagnosis, feel free to contact Phoenix Rehab. Phoenix Rehab provides a range of treatment options for dual diagnosis treatment designed according to an evidence-based approach and 24/7 after care services too.
Phoenix Rehab Services is a leading Rehabilitation Centre in India for Substance Abuse and Behavioural Addiction. At Phoenix, we can help provide the right tools to you or your loved ones on the journey to lead a healthy life free from addiction. Our reliable & effective Drug and Alcohol Addiction Recovery Program is headed and supported by experienced & dedicated de-addiction therapists and is driven by motivated staff that is equipped to handle the various needs of patients and has years of experience in treating addiction.
Our top inpatient de-addiction program in the world, expert team handling this program, our state-of-the-art facility located in Hyderabad, India and our multi-disciplinary and medically guided holistic approach to individual patient scenarios will help you heal from your physical, psychological, emotional, social and spiritual ailments towards total Recovery.
Our Integrated Drug & Alcohol Addiction Recovery Program is a 12 Step Program approved by the World Health Organization. We are proud to mention that we enabled hundreds of successful recoveries from around the globe. In fact, the very first in-patient in our rehab happened to be from overseas.
