Dual diagnosis patients are individuals suffer from both addiction and co-occurring disorders. They are afflicted with the disease of addiction as well as a mental illness, such as depression or bipolar disorder. A co-occurring mental illness diagnosis is a common among alcoholics and addicts. It is estimated that 70% of those suffering from addiction have an co-existing mental condition.
Drug rehabs understand that for a patient to fully recover, both diagnoses must be addressed. For a substance abuse treatment center to simply focus on a dual diagnosis patient’s addiction problem without addressing his or her mental illness, the odds of successfully beating addiction are not good. If a psychiatrist treats a dual diagnosis patient’s mental illness without addressing his or her addiction problem, the odds of successfully managing the person’s mental illness are not good.
Therefore, drug rehabs and doctors now understand that treating both conditions grant the patient a better chance for living a healthy life. The following list provides five important factors to look for when searching for dual diagnosis treatment centers to treat addiction and co-occurring mental illness.
- Trust: The therapist must establish trust with the patient. This trust motivates the patient to learn how to actively control their addiction and mental illness and focus specifically on goals. The trust relationship helps prevent relapse into one or both conditions.
- Experinced Psyciatrists: Dual diagnosis is a complicated issue. The interaction of mental illness and addiction can be diffficult to untangle. Often medications can mask underlying issues. Effective treatment is dependent upon the depth of experience of the pshychiatrists on staff.
- Counseling: Individual, group and family counseling in a is of paramount improtance towards recovery from dual diagnosis. Counseling helps patients develop coping skills and it promotes healthy cognitive and behavioral patterns.
- Social Support: The patient’s social support is extremely important in recovery from dual diagnosis in a drug rehab. Look for a center that encourages group support and interaction during and after inpatient treatment. A patient’s choices and moods are directly impacted by their immediate environment. A patient needs help strengthening positive relationships and weakening those relationships that are harmful and encourage negative behavior.
- Comprehensive Care: Dual diagnosis substance abuse treatment programs should be comprehensive. They ought to include a number of life’s surrounding issues, including: stress management, spiritual support, medication management, social networks, housing and activities. Comprehensive care offers a solution for both mental illness and addiction by treating the separate diseases as intertwined with one another, rather than unrelated to one another.
There are many drug rehabs that offer dual diagnosis services. You may use this list as a reference for making the decision on which facility to choose. Recovering from addiction and a co-occurring mental illness is difficult, but it is possible with the proper professional guidance and support.
