Dual Diagnosis and Dual Diagnosis Treatment

April 13, 2007 at 7:33 am · Filed under Drug Addiction

What is dual diagnosis?

A dual diagnosis occurs when an individual is affected by both chemical dependency and psychiatric/emotional illness. Both illnesses may affect a person physically, socially, psychologically, and spiritually. Each illness has symptoms that interfere with a person’s ability to function effectively. The illnesses may affect each other, and each disorder predisposes to relapse in the other disease. At times the symptoms can overlap and even mask as each other, making dual diagnosis treatment and diagnosis difficult. To fully recover from dual diagnosis, a person needs to treat/address both disorders.
Other names for dual diagnosis are:

Co-morbid disorders
Co-occurring disorders
Concurrent disorders
Co-morbidity
Dual disorders

What is the relationship between mental illness and substance abuse (dual diagnosis)?

Alcohol abuse and drug abuse have many negative connotations in our society. For many, drug abuse and alcohol abuse is perceived to result from lack of willpower, laziness, or selfishness. Sadly, these erroneous perceptions also extend to a group extremely vulnerable to drug abuse – people with mental disorders.

Those with a mental disorder can be very sensitive to the effects of drug abuse; not only can it be easier to abuse drugs; it can also be harder to quit.
Like the rest of the population, a person with a mental disorder is more likely to abuse drugs if there is a family history of alcohol and drug abuse.
Environmental factors such as peer pressure, location, and the availability of the drug also contribute to a pattern of drug abuse in the mentally ill.
Drug use can interfere with prescribed medication, increase symptoms of a mental condition, and increase relapse risk.
Having difficulty developing social relationships, some people find themselves more easily accepted by groups whose social activity is based on drug use.
Some believe that an identity based on drug addiction/alcoholism is more acceptable than one based on mental illness.

A person with a dual diagnosis may sincerely try to recover from one illness and not acknowledge the other. As a person neglects the mental illness, that illness may resurface. This recurrence may in turn lead a person to feel the need to “self medicate” through drug/alcohol use to combat symptoms of the mental illness or side effects of medications. This relief or change is temporary at best and usually leads to hospitalization.
Over time, the lack of progress towards recovery from dual diagnosis may:

Trigger feelings of failure and alienation
Lead to trouble finding housing, because of difficulty living at home and non-tolerance in the Rehabilitation or care facilities
Lead to loss of support systems
Result in frequent relapses and addiction treatment stays.