Dealing With Dual Diagnosis: How To Do It?

Dual diagnosis is done when a person is affected with both mental health and drug abuse issues. Those who have this particular diagnosis can be successfully cured in dual diagnosis centers with programs that simultaneously handle both disorders.

Concepts and Philosophies

Those who have dual diagnosis experience bipolar, anxiety, schizophrenia, despair, personality and manic problems. They also have addictive problems to drugs and other substances. Most often, it is hard to identify which disorder came first. Probably, a person is prompted by his mental problem to abuse alcohol or drugs or his substance problems pre-dated their psychiatric issues. The patient's psychological problem can also be aggravated by the substance use. For instance, when he uses cannabis, his psychotic episode can be triggered.

According to mental doctors, those who have problems in neural functioning are prone to have dual diagnosis. This kind of diagnosis has also been associated to individuals with a history of poverty, parental neglect, physical or sexual abuse, inner city life styles and self-medication.

Impact of Dual Diagnosis

The lack of education about dual diagnosis can be disappointing for victims and their loved ones. They may have the following experiences:

• Getting blamed by medical professionals for not responding to Dual Diagnosis Treatment instead of evaluating whether or not there's a problem to their health care system in terms of offering dual diagnosis remedies.

• Having their mental issue regarded as a secondary problem when they ask for a drug or alcohol abuse therapy. Similarly, when they want to be treated for their psychological issue, their drug or liquor abuse will be addressed as a side effect or a secondary issue.

• Many may not be given early and specialist intervention.

• The treatment may not involve their loved ones, although the family has the familiarity of the problem and sufferings of the dual diagnosis patient.

Managing and Treating of Dual Diagnosis

Often, it's not easy to handle dual diagnosis as this could mean tougher habits such as aggression or self-harm, rejection of services and non-compliance to alcohol or Drug Treatment Programs. This is why the therapy and recovery processes must be monitored by a team of skilled professionals who have knowledge on both substance abuse and mental health problems. They will give remedies that go beyond inpatient programs as the full recovery of people with dual diagnosis should include constant help and assessment which will lead them to get their own job, deal with relationships and manage their finances.

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