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An Explanation to Dual Diagnosis

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An Explanation to Dual Diagnosis

Around twenty years ago, dual diagnoses began to see light. The simple definition for one is when a drug or alcohol addiction co-occurring with a mental disorder.  The National Institute on Drug Abuse has claimed that individuals who abuse substances are twice as likely to suffer from a disorder of some sort.

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration, close to nine million Americans are currently experiencing dual diagnoses.  The unfortunate truth is, only 7.4 percent of those Americans receive drug and alcohol treatment for both their drug and alcohol addiction and co-occuring mental disorder.  More than half don’t receive any treatment at all.

These statistics give us some insight as to how dual diagnoses are still all too unknown.  More often than not, individuals suffering from substance addiction don’t realize there are drug treatment options out there to care for both issues.  Therefore, it becomes very difficult to treat one issue when another one is still present.

Drug Abuse and Mental Illnesses are Commonly Combined

 

As mentioned above, it’s very common for individuals struggling with substance use to also face some sort of mental disorder.  There are also instances where drugs can commence a mental disorder.  In an example, psychedelic substances (such as LSD, PCP, or mushrooms) have been known to cause schizophrenia in certain individuals.

More commonly, however, the opposite is true – a person with a mental disorder will seek out alcohol and/or other substances to self-medicate which in turn may cause dependence or addiction.  This is not only true for alcohol and street drugs, but also for prescription drugs given to them by their doctor.  Benzodiazepines tend to be the most commonly abused prescription drugs, specifically Xanax.  Xanax treats anxiety disorders and can be highly addictive.  Even those with a prescription from a doctor can fall into dangerous dependence on the drug and experience serious withdrawals after even one week of continued use.

And even if somebody with anxiety doesn’t go to a doctor, there are substances widely available that make people feel more socially calm.  The most notable being alcohol.

Diagnosing and Integrated Treatment

 

In order to properly dual diagnose an individual, they must undergo an integrated screening protocol or a clinical evaluation for drug and alcohol use. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA), these individuals who’re admitted into addiction treatment should immediately be screened for both addiction and mental health.  With each problem being assessed at the same time, only then can a solution be worked towards.

It should be noted that treating an addiction and nothing more tends to be less effective than that of treating both an addiction and mental illness.  The reason being – as the statistics above have told us – many individuals who suffer from addiction usually suffer from a mental disorder as well.

Further, individuals who only get treated for one issue generally don’t have the tools to handle the other.   Let’s say someone has recovered from drug addiction, yet, continues to face a large amount of anxiety.  If they do not seek proper medical attention for their anxiety, this can lead them down either of two paths:

  1. Relapse; going back to substances as a means of relieving anxiety.
  2. Absolute confusion; without proper guidance, individuals are still in danger of harming themselves and others (even without drugs) due to the fact that they are unaware of how to control their emotion.

The purpose of integrated drug treatment is to reduce an individual’s use of substances while improving their mental health.  It can be expected that integrated treatment will help one problem in relation to the other.  The goal of dual diagnosis is to let individuals understand the source of their past experiences as a means of discovering how to solve future dilemmas.

Though drug therapy sessions can be expected in addiction treatment, with dual diagnosis, one can expect pharmacotherapy as well.  Along with this, one can expect psychotherapy (or talk therapy) as well.  The purpose of this is to help patients discover the true influences of both their addiction and their mental illness.

Which Treatment is Best for Dual Diagnosis?

 

One of the most prominent ways to treat individuals who’re dual diagnosed is through behavioral interventions. The following are commonly found in treating dual diagnosis:

  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: A means of creating healthier thinking and behavioral patterns for the sake of individuals staying sober. It can be expected that this will work at minimizing problematic beliefs and behaviors.
  • Integrated Group Therapy: A conversation amongst other dual diagnosed individuals that seeks to treat the symptoms of both substance abuse disorders and mental health conditions.
  • Dialectic Behavioral Therapy: Often, substance abuse disorders and addiction go hand-in-hand with self-harming behaviors. This is an effort to diminish that.
  • Individual Psychotherapy: Treats the behaviors often associated with mental health issues and substance abuse.

Due to the fact that everyone has different needs and preferences on how to carry out their treatment, it’s very likely that people will undergo different methods as a means of treating their dual diagnosis.  The only way to properly determine which form of addiction treatment will be most beneficial to you is to speak with a professional substance abuse counselor.

Below, we will look into the options of inpatient treatment and outpatient, however, it is highly recommended you complete an evaluation with a trained mental health professional to figure out which method of treatment will serve your specific circumstance the best.

Inpatient Treatment

 

More often than not, inpatient treatment is recommended for individuals with a dual diagnosis. This is when a person is placed in a residential rehabilitation program where he/she will live under the supervision of professionals.  It was mentioned earlier that individuals in certain environments will react to their addiction or mental health differently.

In an inpatient program, individuals will be in not only a safe environment, but one that’s supervised by professionals.  Dual diagnoses aren’t an easy matter to handle.  Therefore, these professionals along with ongoing support are very much a necessity.

Given, there will be times when the drug and alcohol treatment can feel very intensive.  Dual diagnoses are complex when one is trying to find a solution.  To cure two diseases in one session is to completely change one’s perspective on life and that of which is around them.  With inpatient treatment, individuals will have the opportunity to stay in one place and focus on their dilemma.

With an inpatient treatment, you can expect the following:

  • Daily therapy sessions.
  • The chance to be apart of support groups on a daily basis.
  • A community of a variety of individuals who’re in the same position.
  • The opportunity to receive consistent and professional about substance abuse and mental health.

Outpatient Treatment

 

The difference from an inpatient treatment is an intensive outpatient treatment allows individuals to get the care they need without committing to residency.  Usually taking around 10 weeks, individuals in outpatient treatment are allowed to go about their day-to-day lives if they have important responsibilities; work, school, a family, etc.

You can expect to receive the same kind of counseling and professional help you would from an inpatient treatment, but since you aren’t living in a facility, there’s a larger degree of personal responsibility.  In other words, how seriously you decide to take the treatment is entirely up to your willingness for a change.

Just like the inpatient program, it’s important to have the right motivation.  Individuals shouldn’t be forced into this situation out of their own will.

There’s one vital factor that’s also important to be aware of.  Being that your environment isn’t as controlled, there’s more of a chance to give into substances. Keeping this in mind, it’s essential to have self-control through an outpatient program.  That responsibility is the key to a successful treatment.

With an outpatient treatment, you can expect the following;

  • Group therapy three times a week for three hours a session.
  • The ability to live independently.
  • Peer support, community group, or 12-step program involvement.

If you or anyone you love is suffering from addiction and/or co-occuring mental disorder(s), or would like more information on the topics discussed above, please, give Stonewall Institute Treatment Center a call today at (602) 535-6468 or email us at [email protected].

Change is possible, Stonewall Institute Treatment Center can help you change your life.

Healing Toxic Emotions through Vulnerability in Recovery

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One of the main obstacles to drug and alcohol recovery is the shame associated with substance abuse. A lifetime of addiction can leave behind a wake of regretful actions, damaged relationships, and poor decisions. It can feel overwhelming to face the reality of what life has become, but by sharing your story in Alcoholics Anonymous and other formats, you can move past your shame towards a healthy recovery.

What Is Shame?

Shame is different than guilt. When you feel guilty, you recognize that you did something wrong and act to correct it. Guilt is usually a healthy, motivating emotion. You may say to yourself, “I shouldn’t have done that, but it doesn’t represent who I am.”

Shame is different. It results in negative self-talk such as “I’m so terrible, I can’t believe I did that.” You see your regretful action as a reflection of who you are as a person. Unlike guilt, with shame, you may not try to repair the damage you’ve caused. Instead, you attempt to hide from or ignore the pain. You may disconnect from yourself and from others.

Healthy Shame vs Toxic Shame and Addiction

Believe it or not, not all shame is bad. Shame can serve as a moral compass and a reminder that you are not the all-powerful being you sometimes think you are. Good shame comes in the form of “innate moral shame.” When shame gets out of control, it becomes “internalized shame.” Internalized shame is toxic.

Healthy shame can guide you in the right direction when you have a difficult ethical decision to make. You may lie to your coworker and take a larger percentage of the profits than was agreed upon. The shame you feel for doing this can direct you to be more honest in the future. This type of shame is the foundation of humility and spirituality. Healthy shame can even push you to seek help for addiction when you recognize that substance abuse is the driving force behind your immoral behavior.

But shame isn’t always positive, and this is what makes it such a complicated emotion to understand. It’s internalized shame, or toxic shame, that fuels addictive behaviors. When shame consumes you and makes you feel that you are inherently a bad person, that’s when it can destroy you rather than motivate you towards recovery.

The Destructive Nature of Internalized Shame

Internalized shame makes you feel that you are the problem rather than the decisions you make and the actions you take. Rather than feeling regretful or embarrassed for a short period, you feel like a flawed person. Maybe you even go so far as to feel that you’re not worthy of love. Internalized shame can make you feel inherently defective. At that point, trying to improve yourself is a lost cause. The only way to escape your shame, and yourself, is to use substances to hide from what you’ve become.

Toxic shame is one of the most destructive emotions because it’s all-encompassing and becomes your state of being. Shame is soul sickness at its worst. Internalized shame is at the core of addictive behaviors.

Coping with Toxic Shame Through Substance Abuse

As toxic shame gets worse, you may take every means necessary to isolate yourself from the people who care about you. Distance is the only way to create a separate version of yourself and experience a break from the pain.

What better way to distance yourself than to abuse drugs and alcohol? It’s the easiest, fastest solution. If you’re already genetically predisposed to addiction, the combination of toxic shame and substance can be a lethal one. On one end you have the shame pushing you to seek something outside of yourself in order to feel okay. This can come in the form of money, power, sex, drugs or alcohol. Although these behaviors provide a momentary escape, they only add to the shame and regret after the buzz wears off.

The disease of addiction can take what would have been a healthy shame and turn it into toxic shame. This is especially true with young addicts, especially if their entire adult life has been consumed by addiction. Addiction is their identity. It can lead to a compulsive cycle that fuels more shame and more addictive behavior.

The Healing Power of Vulnerability

Healing toxic shame can be a painful process, but it’s an essential part of drug and alcohol recovery. If you’ve been using substances to escape from your feelings of shame, healing can be especially difficult. You’ll need to completely reverse your relationship with shame and meet it head-on.

It’s okay to recognize the shame that you feel for the decisions you’ve made. Healing begins when you admit that your shame doesn’t represent who you are as a person. Only then can you move forward in recovery.

Shame thrives when you’re in isolation. To beat it, you’re going to need to connect with others and share your story. By externalizing your shame and being vulnerable in front of people you trust, you can begin to recover. Psychologist Brene Brown is a massive proponent of the power of vulnerability to transform your life and become a leader in your community. Vulnerability is also an essential part of healing shame. When you trust someone to accept you for all your flaws you can start to change the negative beliefs you have about yourself.

Alcoholics Anonymous: Healing through Human Connection

Alcoholics Anonymous is a 12-step recovery program that works. Why is it so effective for so many people?

It relies on the power of vulnerability and human connection to heal toxic shame. Alcoholics Anonymous meetings are full of people who know the shame of addiction all too well. You can feel safe to share your experience, get feedback, and start to disconnect from the shame that you’ve identified with for so long.

With that being said, Alcoholics Anonymous isn’t for everyone. If you don’t feel comfortable speaking to a group of people you’ve only recently met, the same power of vulnerability can be experienced by sharing with another support group, mentor or therapist. For most recovering addicts, however, Alcoholics Anonymous is the most effective route to take.

Other recovering addicts will need more than just Alcoholics Anonymous. Inpatient and intensive outpatient substance abuse treatment programs can provide a solid foundation for addiction recovery.

Stonewall Institute Drug and Alcohol Treatment Center in Phoenix, Arizona provides services for drug and alcohol dependency and co-occurring issues. Services are delivered in a private upscale outpatient treatment setting using evidence-based treatment methods. Our program allows clients to sustain life responsibilities while providing an intensive treatment environment 3 evenings per week for 10 weeks. Clients in our Drug and Alcohol Treatment program will learn about underlying issues that contribute to substance dependence and obtain the vital skills necessary to sustain long-term sobriety and recovery.

If you or someone you love is struggling with substance abuse, Stonewall Institute Treatment Center is available to answer any questions you may have. Call us today at 602-535 6468 or email us at [email protected].

Cocaine Addiction: Side Effects and Withdrawals

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Cocaine is powerfully addictive. It’s a stimulant that, like many drugs, circulated among medical professionals well before it reached the general population. In 1884, William Stewart Halsted became the first physician to use cocaine as an anesthetic in surgery, however, Halsted also liked to use cocaine to enhance his performance in the operating theatre. He soon became the first cocaine-addicted physician on record. Sigmund Freud, the famous psychiatrist, was also a prevalent cocaine abuser. Cocaine is attractive to intellectuals and hard-partying weekend warriors alike because of its cognitive-enhancing and dopamine-boosting effects. This is also why this substance has a high potential for addiction and dependence.

Receiving treatment for cocaine addiction is crucial, and the earlier it’s treated the better.  Stonewall Institute Treatment Center’s 10-Week Intensive Outpatient Program is designed to not only treat cocaine addiction itself, but to also provide the tools, structure, guidance, and support that will help maintain long-term sobriety.

 

What Is Cocaine?

Cocaine is a stimulant narcotic that’s used almost exclusively as a recreational drug. Cocaine is now only occasionally used in surgery as a topical anesthetic or for controlling bleeding during nasal surgery.

Cocaine is made from the leaves of the cocoa plant. Indigenous cultures in South America chew the leaves for their energizing effects. Bolivian and Peruvian cultures continue to chew cocoa leaves in high volumes. In Bolivia, an estimated one-third of the population chews cocoa leaves. In leaf form, the intoxicating effects are milder while the cognitive-enhancing effects, like improved mental clarity, are longer lasting.

Once cocaine is extracted from the leaves, it becomes significantly more potent. Both forms are addictive, but pure extracted cocaine holds a higher risk for addiction and dependence. The cocaine that hits the streets is rarely pure cocaine by the time it reaches consumers. Cocaine is often mixed with cornstarch, sugar, or quinine to increase profits. Because you never know what you’re going to get when you buy cocaine on the street, it adds another layer of health risk. Sharing straws or dollar bills to snort cocaine can increase the risk of catching hepatitis C. Snorting cocaine can cause abrasions in the nasal cavity that allows bloodborne pathogens to spread.

 

How Cocaine Works In The Brain

Cocaine affects the brain through a complex interaction of various neurotransmitters and proteins. The two neurotransmitters that cocaine most strongly influences are serotonin and dopamine. Most of the research on cocaine has been focused on its impact on dopamine transmission, as this is the area of the brain that seems to be most strongly affected. Cocaine blocks the function of the dopamine transporter protein. This transporter protein is responsible for removing dopamine from where it can remain active. As a result, the effects of dopamine increase, and the user feels high.  Because of this, many users will ignore the fact that they have a serious drug problem.

At the same time that cocaine makes you feel good by increasing dopamine activity, it improves cognition through a variety of functions, most notably by boosting levels of the protein BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor). BDNF is a protein that’s critical for memory and learning. There are plenty of safer ways to increase BDNF, including exercise, yoga, meditation, sleep, and a healthy social life.

 

Cocaine Addiction: Risks and Side Effects

After only a short period of use, cocaine has a high rate of addiction. The same reason that scientists like Sigmund Freud and William Stewart Halsted loved cocaine is the same reason that makes it so addictive. The mechanism of action that boosts BDNF is also behind its addictive qualities. Without going into too much detail, cocaine enhances your sensitivity to experiencing the reward that comes from getting a hit of dopamine or serotonin.

The positive effects of cocaine include intense happy feelings of euphoria and increased energy. Along with these effects come a long list of dangerous risks and harmful side effects.

Medical professionals consider cocaine to be the perfect “heart attack drug” because it creates the perfect storm for cardiovascular issues. Large doses of cocaine can result in the stiffening of the walls of the arteries, high blood pressure, irregular and rapid heart rate, and myocardial infarction (heart attack).

Other side effects can include paranoia, psychosis, panic attacks, cognitive impairments, mood swings, and dramatic changes in personality.

Long-term risk factors for cocaine abuse include increased body temperature and the development of a manic-like condition similar to amphetamine-induced schizophrenia. These episodes are characterized by severe paranoia, aggression, confusion, and hallucinating the feeling of bugs crawling under the skin, also known as “coke bugs.”

Cocaine addicts can also exhibit rapid weight loss, decreased appetite, weakened immune system, difficulty managing relationships, and increased thoughts of suicide. Because of this life-threatening disease, it’s vital to seek professional substance abuse treatment as soon as possible.

 

Cocaine Withdrawal

One of the reasons why cocaine is so addictive is because its withdrawal effects come on fast. The crash that cocaine users experience at the end of a night of partying is a harsh reminder of withdrawals that await them if they try to get off the drug.

The immediate effects involved with cocaine withdrawal include pounding headaches, anxiety, and insomnia. The headaches are largely due to the dramatic changes that cocaine has on the cardiovascular system. As the walls of the arteries begin to relax and blood pressure decreases, it can be a challenge for the blood vessels in the head to adjust.

As you commit to staying off the drug, all of the negative side effects of cocaine use can get amplified. Long-term cocaine withdrawal symptoms include paranoia, anxiety, mood swings, depression, irritability, exhaustion, insomnia, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, and intense cravings.

The “coke bugs” can return during withdrawals as well. Some users report symptoms similar to schizophrenia and the feeling that their mind is disconnected from themselves. Severe symptoms like these can last from weeks to months depending on the depth of the addiction. The intensity of cocaine withdrawals forces many users to turn to other substances like alcohol and marijuana to help cope with withdrawals and cravings.

 

Deciding to get clean from cocaine is an encouraging step forward in the path towards healing and recovery. The next step is to complete an alcohol and drug evaluation so it can be determined exactly which course of treatment will best suit your needs.  If you or someone you know needs advice about drug or alcohol addiction, feel free to contact Stonewall Institute Treatment Center at 602-535 6468 or email us at [email protected].  We’re here to help.

Best AZ Alcohol and Drug Rehab

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Stonewall Institute is best Arizona alcohol and drug rehab you can find.  It offers a drug and alcohol treatment program that addresses issues that accompany addiction and substance abuse.  If you or a loved one needs help with alcohol or drugs during this holiday season, call 602-535-6468 today to schedule an appointment for a drug and alcohol evaluation.  For more information, visit the website at www.stonewallinstitute.com