The Meaning and Importance of Dual Diagnosis Treatment in Addiction Rehab

Dual diagnosis is an addiction recovery and rehab service that’s relatively new. Up until the 1990s or the tail-end of the 20^th Century, addicted people who were experiencing mental health disorder symptoms like mood swings, delusional behavior, depressive episodes, and anxiety attacks were treated separately by those addicted to substances like drugs or alcohol.

This is the way things were approached back then despite the fact that many addicts ended up as such due to their sicknesses and conditions, like a patient with severe pain becoming addicted to painkillers or someone with depression becoming dependent on certain prescription pills. There were times when conditions outside of drug or alcohol abuse weren’t mutually exclusive from the addiction they helped cause or exacerbate. 

History of Dual Diagnosis 

Dual diagnosis is applicable to those who suffer from persistent and severe mental illness while at the same time also having a substance abuse disorder or addiction. In the United States, treatment of addiction is usually split from mental health services. A group has fallen into the cracks of this supposed divide, and they’re the ones who are typically diagnosed with a dual diagnosis of addiction and mental illness

• Existed Separately : It’s been extremely hard and complex for addicts who have dual diagnosis to get the rehabilitation care and therapy they require from addiction rehab or traditional mental health treatment programs because ofhow these treatments have existed separately from each other.
• Integrated Programs : The best way to deal with a dual diagnosis is through integrated programs that are every bit as symbiotic and related to one another as the addiction and underlying mental illness they’re treating. It’s only through treatment integration that dual diagnosis patients can address their unique needs.
• Both Areas of Expertise : Both areas of expertise in addiction rehabilitation and mental health are required in order to help out individuals with dual diagnosis disorders. An increasing number of mental hospitals and rehab centers are using treatment programs that are grounded in both disciplines in order to effectively treat co-occurring conditions.

Sequential Treatment versus Dual Diagnosis 

Before the 1990s and dual diagnosis came about, sequential treatment was the norm. In the past, clinicians in rehab centers believed that there should be mutual exclusivity or a division between addiction rehabilitation and mental health treatment. This is according to the authors of “Integrated Treatment for Dual Disorders: A Guide to Effective Practice”. 

As far as the sequential approach is concerned, clients with dual diagnosis are excluded from an area of treatment until they’re stable enough to be treated for another treatment area. For example, depressed individuals who are alcoholics might not receive therapy for depression until undergoing detoxification and alcoholism rehabilitation. Studies then showed that sequential treatment led to a higher relapse rate, leading to the dropin popularity of this treatment discipline.

The Concept of Dual Diagnosis

The concept of dual diagnosis, which is also known as comorbid or co-occurring disorders, is a medical or clinical term that refers to the existence of both a mental or behavioral health condition. There are times when a condition might aggravate or contribute to the other in a sort of horrible symbiosis among diseases. For example:

• Symbiosis of Conditions : A patient with a mental disorder might use alcohol or drugs to cope with the symptoms of, for instance, their OCD, anxiety, bipolar disorder, or depression. There are also cases wherein substance abuse might reveal a mental illness or worsen related symptoms to the newly discovered condition.
• Dual Diagnosis Statistics : According to SAMHSA or the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, almost 8 million Americans are dealing with both mental and substance use disorder back in 2014. However, only a fraction of that number of dual diagnosis patients seek help or rehab to get the specific, tailor-made treatment they require.
• Why Mental and Addiction Disorder Co-Occur : It’s unknown or there’s no current specific reason why drug and alcohol addiction as well as psychiatric issues frequently happen at the same time in the same person. People who have to deal with both types of disorder often showcases symptoms that are resistant to, more severe to deal with, and persistent against traditional rehab treatment compared to people who are only addicts or have mental issues alone.

An Overlap of Conditions and Addictions 

When addiction and condition overlap, clients were often denied treatment for the illness until they’ve achieved sobriety. Alas, because substance abuse is mostly motivated by an underlying mental or physical disorder, this usually resulted in people with dual diagnosis never getting the specific assistance and treatment they needed the most. To wit:

• No Hard Line : Instead of drawing a hard line between addiction and psychiatric health, both these areas are treated as the same time with rehab centers that offer dual diagnosis. The treatment of one is affected by the treatment of the other in a continuum.
• Training for Dual Diagnosis Treatment : Clinicians at addiction treatment facilities can now acquire training and credential when it comes to treating co-occurring mental health conditions on top of addiction. Such training was nonexistent before dual diagnosis came to be.
• Individualized Therapy : While group therapy means treating multiple addicts in a more social group setting, individual therapy involves personalized treatment tailor-made for patients, which may or may not include dual diagnosis depending on the person being treated.
• The Challenge of Finding Dual Diagnosis Programs : Finding a rehab program with dual diagnosis is challenging. Dual diagnosis isn’t the standard across the board for all rehab facilities. You need to hunt down centers that actually practice dual diagnosis as part of its portfolio of services.
• Dealing with Certain Instances of Dual Diagnosis : It’s also difficult to deal with certain instances of dual diagnosis, like drug addicts or alcoholics who at the same time also have to deal with anxiety or depression .
• Office of Applied Studies Report : According to a 2002 report by the Office of Applied Studies (A United States Department of Health and Human Services division), only 12 percent of four million adults in America who got dual diagnosis acquired treatment for both their condition and their addiction.
• Dual Diagnosis Classification : You may be classified as a dual diagnosis patient when you enter treatment if you suffer from the following mental health disorders:

• • Depression
  • Schizophrenia
  • Bipolar disorder
  • Anxiety disorders
  • Personality disorder 

This typically goes alongside addictive disorders such as the following:

• • Alcoholism
  • Sex addiction
  • Drug addiction
  • Gambling addiction
  • Some other behavioral addiction

To effectively treat a dual diagnosis, the rehab center should take into consideration both your addiction and your other illness as you go through the rehabilitation and recovery process. 

The best rehab facilities, like Lanna Rehab, actually deals with dual diagnosis on top of substance abuse treatment and recovery. Dual diagnosis in 21^st Century drug treatment blends the most successful aspects of substance abuse treatment and mental health care, so the patient is taken care of in both ways. 

What Does an Effective Dual Diagnosis Entail? 

If you wish to increase your chances of full recovery, your dual diagnosis care should include the following treatments:

• Parallel Treatment : Dual diagnosis typically involves parallel treatment of your substance use disorder and mental health condition by members of an internationally trained and credentialed treatment team of doctors, nurses, and therapists.
• Psychotherapeutic Medications : Dual diagnosis rehab centers usually acknowledge how important it is to prescribe psychotherapeutic medications such as anti-anxiety medications and antidepressants when it comes to co-occurring disorder treatment.
• Supportive Approach to Therapy : When dual diagnosis clients are treated for addiction rehab, they’re usually counseled and treated with treatment that rebuilds their self-confidence and reinforces their self-esteem.
• No to Indictments and Condemnations : Aggressive, negative statements are avoided when it comes to the supportive therapy approach. The patient isn’t judged, condemned, shamed, or blamed for his or her addiction like with his or her mental condition.
• Inclusive Treatment Strategy : Dual diagnosis treatment also entails an inclusive treatment strategy that brings household members like children, spouses, and partners into therapy for education, group meetings, and/or individual counseling so that they don’t turn into stressors or enablers for the addict.

Getting a Dual Diagnosis 

In order to get dual diagnosed, substance abuse patients should first meet the criteria indicating they’re mental health disorder suffers as defined by “The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders”, specifically its latest version. The DSM is published by the American Psychiatric Association and serves as a guideline for mental health doctors who diagnose and treat patients in various clinical settings.

• Qualified Professionals : A qualified therapist, counselor, psychologist, physician, or psychiatrist can offer you a dual diagnosis if you have an addiction to drugs and alcohol as well as gambling and sex on top of a concurrent mental health disorder. The extra training should help them deal with more problematic patients with underlying conditions that cause or worsen their addiction.
• A Huge Relief : Ironically, addiction to drugs and/or alcohol can become a dark cloud with a silver lining. You can get a dual diagnosis over a previously undiagnosed mental illness for a long time, thus becoming a huge relief to you after wondering your whole life what’s “wrong” with you. In your search for addiction treatment, you’ve serendipitously stumbled upon an even better treatment.
• Putting a Name to Your Condition : Putting a name to your condition won’t only make sense of why you’ve suffered flashbacks or hallucinations to traumatic events, suicidal thoughts, sadness, hopelessness, and severe mood swings for many years or decades. It can also potentially solve your addiction too, of which could be a symptom of your underlying sickness.
• A Ray of Hope : Once your condition has a name, it’s been identified. It can be treated. It also affects your addiction therapy, making it more multidimensional. If you’re battling addiction, recovery for your mental illness is even more challenging. With a treatment team that’s properly trained and compassionate, you should make it through rehabilitation and begin your journey towards sobriety.

Dual Diagnosis Signs and Symptoms 

In order to get a dual diagnosis that’s official and confirmed, a mental health professional and/or an addiction specialist should evaluate you. You don’t necessarily need to be a primary care doctor or psychologist in order to figure out that’s something not right with you or someone you love. 

The following signs and symptoms may indicate an addiction problem and mental illness.

• Straining and laboring to keep up with work or school.
• Stealing and lying in order to resume your addictive behavior.
• Discarding family and friends in order to get with a new crowd or indulge in new activities.
• Trying to quit addictions with unsafe sex, gambling, drinking, and drugs but suffering from repeated relapses.
• Ending up with expressions of regret or guilt from innate compulsiveness or compulsive behavior.
• Searching for large drug doses, more alcohol, or increased high-risk behavior in order to achieve the same high or sensation of elation.
• Undergoing withdrawal symptoms after attempting to quit a harmful substance cold turkey or even cutting down the normal doses taken.

The only way that a clinic can make sure if you’re a patient with a dual diagnosis is to have on hand an addiction treatment specialist with a psychiatric care background. Luckily, facilities like Lanna Rehab regularly integrate mental and physical rehabilitation when it comes to treating drug and alcohol addiction. In essence:

• Experienced Specialists : The internationally accredited doctors and specialists of such centers should be able to identify the red flags of mental illness as they go about their diagnosis and evaluation of the addiction patient’s symptoms.
• Review Your Psychiatric History : In such facilities, evaluation specialists and intake counselors will review your mental and psychiatric history alongside your substance use behavioral patterns.
• Development of an Individualized Treatment Plan : Simpler instances of addiction without dual diagnosis can be treated through group therapy or even an outpatient program. However, more often than not, individualized inpatient treatment plans are called for when it comes to dual diagnosis clients.

Treatment Options for Dual Diagnosis

When you get a dual diagnosis for a mental illness and substance abuse addiction disorder, there’s no single one-size-fits-all treatment for you. In fact, most dual diagnosis rehab clinics exist in order to give their individualized therapy more depth, so by default treatment for such cases come on a case-by-case basis. It depends on the individual, the co-occurring condition, and the type of addiction involved.

Indeed, mental health disorders are broad and varied. Meanwhile, the link between your substance addiction and psychiatric issue is complicated. Sometimes, the condition exacerbates the addiction or vice-versa. Other times, the addiction is a symptom of the underlying condition, necessitating treatment of both.

Dual diagnosed individuals may get a diagnosis for the following:

• Eating Disorder : This includes such conditions as anorexia, binge eating, compulsive eating, or bulimia.
• Personality Disorder : This includes such conditions as antisocial disorder or borderline personality disorder.
• Anxiety Disorder : This includes such conditions as generalized anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, or post-traumatic stress disorder.
• Mood Disorder : This includes such conditions as bipolar disorder or major depression.

Understanding the Need for Treatment 

Clients with dual diagnosis tend to have denial as a common behavior. Because mental illness can alter your own perceptions and thoughts, there’s a slippery slope present that makes a person indulge in denial then neglect their illness altogether under the delusion that it doesn’t exist.

• Depression and Anxiety : Disorders like depression can make you think and feel like your life isn’t worth living, saving, or continuing as you fall into the depths of despair. Meanwhile, anxiety serves as a condition that can drive you away from being into contact with others, thus limiting your social circle and leaving you lonely and fearful of intimacy.
• Addiction as a Symptom of Mental Illness : An untreated illness will manifest in various ways, including addiction to substances that help you cope with it. Indeed, mental illness symptoms can be so traumatizing and disturbing that you might be driven to abusing drugs and/or alcohol in order to deal with your condition. In that sense, the addiction can itself be a symptom or complication of your mental issues.
• There’s a measure of denial among patients of addiction when it comes to rehab. They don’t want to believe they’re addicts and think they’re just drug users or social drinkers at best. Once they do accept their addiction, they also might feel ashamed when it comes to reaching out to others in order to start the recovery process.

Getting Your Life Back on Track 

In order to ride back towards the road to sobriety, you need support from professionals as well as trust and hope on your part. The best rehab centers understand the difficulties that addicts have in extending their trust to others. They’ve been abandoned before and they themselves have betrayed their loved ones due to their compulsions.

Nevertheless, it’s important to rely on the members of your treatment team in order to make your rehab more rewarding, easier, and super effective when push comes to shove. You’re encouraged to call rehab facilities for advice and referrals if you or a loved one is struggling with both addiction and a co-occurring condition. 

Dual Diagnosis and Substance Addiction Rehab at Lanna Rehab 

Contact Lanna Rehab Center if you wish to get substance abuse or drug and alcohol addiction treatment with the possibility of dual diagnosis therapy. The staff and crew of the facility is used to dealing with various addictions while also taking into consideration preexisting conditions that might exacerbate the addiction condition. The accredited doctors, therapists, and counselors are available to rehab people suffering from marijuana to methamphetamine addictions as well as alcoholism. Just contact the toll-free number 24/7.