10 Things You Should Know About Dual Diagnosis and Depression
Individuals who simultaneously experience depression and addiction have a dual diagnosis. Dual diagnosis can refer to any co-occurring combination of mental illness and addiction (be it drugs, alcohol or another compulsive behavior), but depression remains one of the most common elements found in the diagnosis.
For those individuals suffering from a depression-based dual diagnosis, and their families, good information about the condition is invaluable.
10 things you should know about dual diagnosis and depression
- Symptoms of depression include: low motivation, feelings of hopelessness, weight loss, physical aches and pains, and lack of appetite.
- Dual diagnosis is a more common phenomenon than many people think. Over half of those people who abuse drugs are believed to also have a mental illness. Similarly, well over a third of those with an alcohol addiction have a co-occurring mental illness.
- One of the challenges of identifying and treating dual diagnosis patients is that the signs and symptoms of depression and other mental illnesses are very similar to those of alcoholism and drug addiction.
- Those suffering from depression begin using drugs and alcohol as a way to escape the negative feelings associated with their mental condition.
- Dual diagnosis in those with depression is dangerous on two levels: drugs and alcohol are not going to make the depression go away, and may only tend acerbate the illness, and secondly, those with depression are unlikely to be a in a position to seek help for their addiction. Therefore, each condition gets worse very quickly as a result of the other.
- In order for an individual with a dual diagnosis to receive proper care, they must work with a treatment center that has both psychological and drug rehab professional on staff. This type of treatment is sometimes referred to as "integrated care".
- A treatment professional working with a dual diagnosis patient must consider the effects of any anti-psychotic drugs the individual may be taking – and how that drug might be interacting with the illicit drug to which they have an addiction.
- The brain of an individual with depression is not providing enough "reward" sensations to the nerve center. Many with depression will therefore turn to drugs that stimulate the reward system and provide positive feelings (if only for a time).
- Teenagers with mental illness are, because of their age group, likely to start using drugs. Consequently, the drugs make the symptoms of the mental illness appear more quickly, and will get much worse over time if the drug use continues.
- Michael's House provides integrated care from those suffering with a dual diagnosis, and has helped thousands of individuals with depression and a drug addiction find a new life.
Michael's House helps those who believed, at one time or another, that they would never live a happy, productive life. Sometimes working against the longest odds imaginable, the caring, expert staff at this Palm Springs residential rehab treatment facility proved that it was possible. Contact Michael's House today at 1-877-345-8494 for integrated treatment from a facility that knows dual diagnosis as well as anyone in the country.
