Dual Diagnosis: What Is It?
Dual diagnosis is usually used in the context of someone having an alcohol or substance abuse problem along with a mental illness issue. The mental illness could be depression, anxiety , schizoaffective disorder or an eating disorder.
Some studies have indicated that a certain percentage of people suffering from an eating disorder also use alcohol or drugs to cope with the problem. “Co-curring disorder” is another term that is used interchangeably with “dual diagnosis disorder”.
Treating only one of the two issues can cause the person to spiral and loose control with the untreated symptom. This may result in a relapse or a fall back into the treated illness. Having dual diagnosis treatment doubled the chances of success for a patient. This way one problem won’t unravel the other one.
There are several dual diagnosis rehab centers in the continental US. These dual diagnosis rehab centers aim to achieve a more long term recovery by treating both illnesses that cause the imbalance in a person’s life.
Diagnosis can be challenging as symptoms may overlap. There are many psychiatric diagnoses and active use of alcohol or drugs can also cause depression. Withdrawing from alcohol or drugs can also result in depression. Some people take drugs on their own to deal with a mental illness so develop a drug dependency when in fact, the underlying issue was the emotional disorder that was never treated properly.
Diagnosis can be challenging as symptoms may overlap. There are many psychiatric diagnoses and active use of alcohol or drugs can also cause depression. Withdrawing from alcohol or drugs can also result in depression. Some people take drugs on their own to deal with a mental illness so develop a drug dependency when in fact, the underlying issue was the emotional disorder that was never treated properly.
My daughter has a bipolar diagnosis and she couldn’t stop her addiction to cocaine and pain pills till she worked on that in a dual diagnosis center. She now goes shopping when she gets in a manic state and is getting help to control the symptoms. They can change into other areas. You have to stay on top of this to avoid it going into new forms.