Understanding the Role of a Dual Diagnosis Treatment Center

Addiction and mental health are often intertwined. We look at the role of a dual diagnosis treatment center in providing understanding and support in recovery.

Mental health and addiction are often two sides of the same coin. Dealing with even one of these issues can feel like an insurmountable task, especially if you’re left to face them alone.

The role of a dual diagnosis treatment center is to help people who are struggling not only with addiction but with various mental health issues as well. Now more than ever people are finding themselves entangled in problems they’re not able to extricate themselves from without guidance.

If you’re in the throes of addiction and suspect you may also need help with your mental health, read on to learn how dual diagnosis treatment might be the answer.

Dual Diagnosis and Understanding Addiction

The first step towards tackling any problem is to know exactly what you’re up against. Making changes in the hopes of regaining a certain level of balance in your life is going to be difficult without first addressing the obstacles in your way. Taking the time to consider exactly where your issues lie is difficult and can be painful depending on how new being honest with yourself is.

Self-diagnosis is also hard to get right and may be a detriment to the process if you mistakenly steer yourself in the wrong direction. It’s comforting sometimes to pigeonhole yourself, as labels are something to hold onto when the water is rough and you find yourself adrift at sea. However, addiction and mental health aren’t something to be left to the layman. The combined natures of a mental health struggle and substance abuse are incendiary and potentially damaging to both the sufferer and those around them.

Guidance and Relief

Seeking the guidance of a dual diagnosis treatment center helps mitigate much of the pressure felt by the combination of addiction and poor mental health. Professional guidance exists to alleviate this pressure while helping the sufferer to better understand themselves and their current position before moving forward and making a positive change. This is done healthily, prioritizing the safety and well-being of the patient wherever possible.

Patients are typically hard on themselves. Feelings of guilt, regret, and shame are commonplace but aren’t conducive to the healing process. Professionals are much more gentle and excel at helping people to learn the respect for themselves that’s necessary for positive change while avoiding the many pitfalls along the way.

Mental Health Disorders and Addiction

Addiction comes in many different forms and plagues people from all different walks of life. One of the most common reasons to develop a chemical dependency is through an attempt at securing a type of succor to deal with failing mental health. Poor mental health is often associated with prolonged bouts of negative emotion, which the sufferer will do anything to escape from.

Substance use often starts as self-medication in an attempt to escape from negative thoughts and feelings. This is a short-term strategy seeking to treat the symptoms rather than their cause and is the beginning of a slippery slope that ultimately ends in the worsening of negative emotions and the continued fraying of mental health.

Wanting to avoid negative feelings is perfectly understandable, but this route can only end in the disastrous reinforcing of a cycle that benefits nobody.

A New Direction

At a certain stage, the reality that self-medicating doesn’t work becomes impossible to ignore. While the truth of it is painful to face, it’s also a necessary realization permiting the sufferer to consider an alternative strategy that might bear fruit. To this end, the thought of continuing to stagnate in misery and addiction proves more painful to the sufferer than giving up their chosen crutch, and moving in a different direction becomes possible.

It’s no wonder this process takes a significant toll on mental health. The support of a professional is invaluable at this stage and makes the world of difference in their efforts to extricate themselves from the dark hole they’ve dug themselves.

Preventing Relapse

After so much time spent being reliant on a particular substance to make life tolerable, it’s not a strategy that’s easy to forget. The threat of relapse looms large, as physical and mental dependences aren’t a simple matter of decision. Our bodies and minds become accustomed to the abuse we put them through, and much like a path worn in the ground, it takes a while for the grass to grow over again.

Even after years of abstinence, there will still be a dip in the earth where the patient used to tread so diligently. The memory of the relief a substance provides never disappears, and a reflexive return to it is always just around the corner, waiting, should they drop their guard. Preventing relapse requires daily effort and an exercise of will that begins as herculean.

Asking For Help

Over time, however, new paths are created. With the help of professionals who understand how best to navigate co-occurring conditions, signposts and warnings can be erected along the way. The importance of judgment-free conversation and guidance can’t be overstated, and there’s no shame in asking for direction when you’re lost in the wilderness, especially not from a seasoned trail guide.

Life is difficult and confusing enough without trying to go it alone, and it’s unfair to expect to never get lost along the way. Even in the best of health and with all the opportunities in the world, taking a wrong turn is still possible. Seeking out the help you need isn’t an admission of weakness or failure, it’s simply the human thing to do.

Dual Diagnosis Treatment Center, CA

At Visalia Recovery Center, we believe the foundation for recovery is strongest when it’s based on empathy and expertise, and that’s exactly what we’ve been offering since being founded in 1999. Our team of qualified professionals and in-house staff offer accessible and affordable care that’s second to none.

If you’re struggling with your mental health as well as substance addiction, we know how tough it can be, and we’re here to help. If you’d like to learn more about our support services or our dual diagnosis treatment center, don’t hesitate to reach out! We’d love to hear from you.