The effort it takes for someone to arrest their drug/alcohol addiction is enormous. It takes a level of strength that a lot of people can’t seem to find. As hard as it is to recover from an addiction, can you imagine how hard it is to do so while also dealing with a mental health issue? Most people can’t fathom just how hard that is to accomplish.
If someone has both an addiction and a bipolar disorder that are somehow integrated, they have what experts call “co-occurring disorders.” To be clear, addiction treatment professionals will only count them as co-occurring disorders if the evidence suggests one is causing the other.
If you are trying to navigate life as an addict while also living with a mental or emotional illness like bipolar disorder, you have a lot on your plate. That very fact is exactly the reason you need to look into getting treatment for your addiction issues. With that said, you might also have to further address your bipolar disorder.
By the way, you may have a bipolar disorder whether you have a diagnosis or not. It’s something that might become evident for the first time while you are getting treatment for your addiction. Such a discovery could certainly go a long way towards explaining why you feel the need to self-medicate.
In case you are not clear what a bipolar disorder is all about, we offer you the following information.
When someone has a bipolar disorder, they live in a world where their moods can swing rather drastically from time to time. For days on end, they are feeling sad and profoundly depressed. All of a sudden and without warning, they start to experience mania. With mania, they feel a hyper connection to the world with everything seemingly moving at the speed of light. They start having difficulty sleeping and concentrating.
All of a sudden, their mood swings back to depression. Sometimes, they might get a chance to experience their mood leveling off a bit. However, the return to depression or mania is inevitable.
Will a Drug Rehab in FL Also Treat Co-Occurring Bipolar Disorder?
Some Florida rehabs are among the best treatment providers in the world. The reason they have such a reputation is that they offer treatment solutions that address a wide range of problems. So yes, there are plenty of Florida rehabs, ours included, that can treat co-occurring disorders. The addiction treatment community refers to the treatment of co-occurring disorders as “dual diagnosis treatment.”
What you need to understand is how complicated and difficult it is for a therapist to administer dual-diagnosis therapy. Why? Since the two disorders are integrated, they both need treatment. What makes the treatment process complicated is both disorders need to be treated simultaneously. Otherwise, the untreated disorder is going to end up undermining the entire treatment process.
Example: You have a bipolar disorder and use drugs to hide the sadness and despair you feel during your depression. Notice the causation. If your therapist treats the addiction without addressing the bipolar disorder, it’s just a matter of time before you relapse. The temptation is still there to continue self-medicating as a way of coping with your bipolar symptoms.
There is one more thing you need to know about dual diagnosis therapy. It’s possible your addiction therapist won’t have the credentials they would need to treat your bipolar disorder. If that were to be the case, you would have to work with two therapists who would each have responsibility for treating one side of your co-occurring disorders. It’s not the optimum solution, but you have to do what’s necessary to get the level of treatment you need.
By the way, mental disorders are not always the cause of co-occurring disorders. It’s quite possible for someone to be reasonably healthy from a mental health perspective only to develop a mental health issue because of their addiction. The direction of causation is something you will want to address with your therapist or therapists.
You should now have a better understanding of what happens when someone has to deal with co-occurring disorders. It’s not a fun thing with which to live. Fortunately, both disorders are treatable with dual-diagnosis therapy. If you believe you might have such a diagnosis, we can offer you the help you need. You just need to pick up the phone and reach out for our help. When the time is right, you can speak with one of our representatives by calling 833-846-5669.