Drug Addiction or Mental Illness?
Are we as a society obsessed with celebrities? Perez Hilton’s Hollywood gossip site had a record number of page views the day after Brittany Spears hit the news on January 4th. In the course of 24 hours, the site had over 10 million page views. To quote Perez “That’s insane!”
A large percentage of people with drug and alcohol addicitons, both in recovery and not, are suffering from a dual diagnosis. This means they not only have substance abuse issues, but also issues concerning mental illness. The latest speculation on Britney Spears has been that she is in need of dual diagnosis treatment. I hope and pray that Britney seeks help once again and that any underlying mental issues can be treated as well.
With the proper care and desire, even those with the most severe dual diagnosis can recover.
According to Dr. Diana Kirschner, who has not treated Spears but is an expert on the subject, "people who show patterns of behavior like Britney are suffering from a dual diagnosis. They have both a substance abuse problem and a bipolar disorder or manic disorder."
February 1st, 2008 at 5:31 am
As the director of Novus Medical Detox, we have many people complete their detox and go on to treatment. Our patients are from all economic levels. While our patients have problems similar to other people in society, they made decisions to use drugs and/or alcohol to deal with these. I think that the dual diagnosis designation is silly and only serves as an excuse to give more drugs not help the person confront life without drugs..
However, the most importatnt thing is for anyone to make the decision that they want to stop using substances.
Then if they select a good medical detox and then a rehab that really gets results they will make it.
Steve Hayes
http://www.novusdetox.com
March 14th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
The United States Department of Health and Human Services estimated that 50-75 percent of patients in substance abuse treatment programs have co-occurring mental illness. Merely detoxing the client and treating the addictive behaviors is simplistic in cases of dual diagnoses because causative factors are being ignored. Many addicts have learned to self-medicate with drugs and alcohol to alleviate symptoms related to other mental health problems. Medication is not required in all cases of co-occurring conditions, but can be a useful adjunct to psychotherapy and a 12 Step approach to addiction. Responsible treatment for substance abuse disorders addresses all facets of the addict’s mental, physical, and spiritual health.
Reference: SAMHSA http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bv.fcgi?rid=hstat5.chapter.74073