Dual Diagnosis Treatment in Galveston, TX

When a person has an addiction to drugs or alcohol, many people focus exclusively on the fact that they suffer from an addiction and ignore or just do not notice if they have any other physical or mental health issues. This is why many people have never even heard of the idea of dual diagnosis for addiction. However, in order for a person to be able to overcome their addiction successfully as well as ensure that their overall health is maintained and protected, it is important to understand the concept of dual diagnosis as well as the options for dual diagnosis treatment in Galveston. Get to know more about dual diagnosis for addiction as well as the choices available to you for dual diagnosis treatment in Galveston so you can get into the best possible dual diagnosis treatment center for you and your addiction.

What is Dual Diagnosis?

Before you can explore the options for dual diagnosis treatment programs in Galveston, it is important to understand what is meant by dual diagnosis. Dual diagnosis is the state of simultaneously or concurrently suffering from two health conditions. In the case of dual diagnosis for addiction, one of those health conditions is the addiction to drugs or alcohol and the other is a mental health condition or disorder.

Dual Diagnosis and Addiction

While many people do not realize it, mental health disorders and drug and alcohol addictions go hand in hand quite often. The problem is that the addiction often takes the spotlight in terms of priorities and care and the mental health disorder may get pushed to the wayside.

When this happens, the person may go through addiction treatment and find themselves repeatedly struggling with relapse, continued substance abuse, and of course, their mental health issues. The reason that addiction treatment alone is not successful when a person actually has a dual diagnosis for addiction is that the two types of conditions are more often than not connected and related to one another in ways that are complicated and difficult to separate.

Mental health disorders and addictions are so connected largely because the development of a drug or alcohol addiction can many times be as a reaction to a mental health disorder. This is essentially the issue of self-medicating. When a person suffers from a mental health issue like anxiety or depression but does not know how to cope, they may turn to alcohol or other drugs to try to lessen the symptoms and make themselves feel better, even if the effects are only temporary and the aftereffects are even worse.

The cost of that repeated drug or alcohol abuse, of course, is a further shift in their brain chemistry that makes them physically dependent on the drug for their brain to perform certain functions. In this way, mental health issues can cause an addiction. This is why participating in our program for dual diagnosis treatment in Galveston is necessary.

Alternatively, drug and alcohol abuse can also cause mental health conditions to develop. When a person abuses meth, for example, they can do so much damage to the physical structure and function of their brain that they may develop a permanent psychosis or could even develop schizophrenia (a serious mental health condition in which the person has great difficulty distinguishing between what is real and what is imagined or only in their own mind). Other drug abuse can similarly lead a person to develop mental health issues.

The reasons, therefore, that dual diagnosis in addiction is so common is that either disorder can lead to the development of the other. Also, both addiction and mental health conditions affect a person's brain chemistry.

Because the two conditions affect one another as well as both affect the brain, getting assistance and care from a dual diagnosis treatment center is vitally important. Without the help of one of a dual diagnosis treatment center the brain will remain out of balance and will lead to substance abuse, requiring participation through our program for relapse prevention in Galveston.

Types of Mental Health Disorders

There are many mental health disorders that a person might suffer from in their lifetime. However, when it comes to the issues seen in a dual diagnosis treatment center for addiction, some mental health disorders are quite a bit more common than others. Some of these include:

Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health disorder in the United States. This issue affects over 40 million people in the United States over the age of 18 as well as many young people. And 20 percent of those 40 million people will also suffer from a substance abuse problem or addiction. A person with an anxiety disorder may experience chronic insomnia, feelings of dread, panic attacks, and other similar symptoms.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Obsessive-compulsive disorder or OCD is a mental health condition in which a person becomes obsessed with certain subjects or ideas and will perform compulsive patterns of action as a result. Oftentimes, people with OCD are filled with a deep sense of fear or dread that if they do not complete their patterns of action (like locking the door a certain number of times or performing the same routine to wash their hands every time) that something horrible will happen. OCD is a specific type of mood and anxiety disorder that can deeply affect a person's life.

If you are currently struggling with both an addiction and a mental health disorder, help is available to you through dual diagnosis treatment in Galveston. Call us now at (877) 804-1531.