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Addiction and mental illness are frequently found together, causing a dual diagnosis. The problem with mental illness medications is that they are also being abused, creating an addiction to them and other drugs.
Mental illness and drug abuse
Mental illness often leads to self-medication with things like alcohol, antidepressants, and other medications.
Some of the mental illnesses that become addicted to medications and alcohol are:
- Depression
- Anxiety disorders
- Phobias
- Bipolar
- Schizophrenia
- OCD
Other mental illnesses can cause dual diagnosis with addiction.
Some of the substances that are abused that cause addiction include:
- Alcohol
- Cocaine
- Opioids (pain medications)
- Marijuana
- Heroine
- Meth
- Crack
- Ecstasy
Some of the mental illness medications that can cause addiction are:
- Antidepressants
- Aripiprazole (Abilify)
- Olanzapine (Zyprexa)
- Quetiapine (Seroquel)
- Risperidone (Risperdal)
- Alprazolam (Xanax)
- Clonazepam (Klonopin)
- Chlordiazepoxide (Librium)
- Lorazepam (Ativan)
If you are suffering from mental illness and addiction, you need to understand that not all substance abuse programs offer the same treatment. For example, some clinics will only treat substance abuse and not mental illness medication abuse; these clinics feel that the addiction must be dealt with separately. But often fail to understand that the addiction is a symptom of self-medicating the underlying mental illness.
Self-medicating mental illness
For many with mental illness, stress causes them to self-medicate with alcohol, marijuana, or other substances.
For example, someone who has been sexually abused will often deal with depression, anger, guilt, and many more emotions. They may find it challenging to go out with a great deal of anxiety to do the most routine things like shopping, going to work, or seeing family. So they begin drinking to give them the courage to do the necessary things. It snowballs into alcoholism and no longer works, so they move on to something more substantial. It continues until they are an addict and still have the mental health issues that led them to self-medicate.
It is important to seek help for mental illness, including prescription medications; but, even they can be abused. People with mental illness should also seek a therapist to help them talk about the underlying issues and develop a plan to deal with those issues. Appropriately treating mental health issues will make it easier to treat substance abuse, especially when treating mental illness and substance abuse. A program helps the patient create a plan that allows them to work through them together. Exercise, diet, and spiritual help, along with therapy, can go a long way to help them beat the addiction and do well with prescribed medication for the mental illness.
Looking for a treatment center
When looking for a treatment center in Orange County, it needs to be a treatment center that treats dual diagnoses.
They treat both the mental illness and the addiction from self-medicating increases the chances for the patient to reach and maintain recovery and live a sober, clean life.
449 Recovery in California, treats both addiction and mental health issues. We believe that treating underlying mental health issues help reduces your chances of relapse regarding substance addiction.
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