Dual Diagnosis in Mission, Texas (877) 804-1531

At our center for dual diagnosis treatment in Mission, we help individuals and their families discover what it means to receive a dual diagnosis, define the symptoms and side effects of a variety of mental health disorders, and explain why treatment specifically for people with co-occurring disorders has so many benefits for patients in this category.

Even though we live in a politically correct society and people are careful about what they say to a certain degree, many terms and words are bandied about by non-medical professionals like crazy, drug addict, OCD, or bipolar just because an individual displays one sign or symptom or infrequently acts a certain way.

Someone who is very happy and then becomes very sad may just be that way because of how their day went, not because they have a mental disorder. Similarly, a person can be depressed without being diagnosed with clinical depression. In corollary, a person who drinks or uses drugs is not necessarily an alcoholic or an addict. All this ties together on the flip side of the coin; a person can be addicted to drugs and have an anxiety disorder.

When this is the case, when a person has co-existing conditions, it is referred to as a dual diagnosis. The upside is that due to research over the last two decades, dual diagnosis for addiction treatment has become a recognized medical technique, one that we offer at our programs for dual diagnosis treatment in Mission.

What is Dual Diagnosis?

Dual diagnosis is the medical and mental health term for the circumstance wherein a person has two different (albeit sometimes symptomatically overlapping) mental disorders, one of which is addiction.

At our facility that provides dual diagnosis treatment in Mission, patients and their loved ones can learn that there is no set order in which co-existing conditions can be developed. Addiction can lead to another mental disorder and one of the many other disorders can lead to addiction.

One of the things that we often see in our inpatient rehab in Mission when a person has a mental disorder and later develops an addiction, is that they have been self-medicating. This is a common activity throughout society and is referred to as drug abuse, which can lead to drug addiction.

Self-medication is when a person administers drugs or alcohol to themselves, in this case to help diminish or relieve in some way the symptoms of a mental disorder. This might seem like an easy fix, especially if the drug is something a person considers mild or medicinal in nature already, like a prescription medication prescribed for something else or to someone else.

However, as the person begins to rely on this drug to get them through the day instead of seeking proper treatment, they can develop an addition to the substance and need to seek not just drug rehab but dual diagnosis for addiction treatment.

Types of Mental Health Disorders

Our specialized treatment programs in Mission treat many different combinations of addiction and other mental health disorders. There are some that are more commonly found together but there is no set rule about what co-existing conditions a person can have as part of their dual diagnosis.

Specialists in our dual diagnosis rehab work with patients every day that along with their addiction can have bipolar disorder, high-anxiety, schizophrenia, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), depression, Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD), and a variety of other mental illnesses.

Many cases are not straightforward and are not simply a person who has two diseases or disorders. For example, a woman receiving dual diagnosis for addiction treatment in our program may have been in an abusive relationship that involved drug abuse or addiction, then developed PTSD due to the abuse and turned to drugs to help her deal with the symptoms of her disorder.

No matter how difficult or complicated the case, we will work through it in our dual diagnosis rehab with the patient and their family as needed.

Why is Dual Diagnosis Treatment Necessary? What are the Benefits?

We offer dual diagnosis for addiction treatment because it addresses the needs of this particular sub-category of individuals who can benefit from care catered to them. In the past, patients with co-occurring disorders were shuffled between medical disciplines with very little coordination, which often lead to one of their disorders getting worse, not better.

At our center for dual diagnosis treatment in Mission, we make sure a person's medical history is fully recorded and their symptoms are thoroughly assessed before any treatment takes place so that they can be successful in recovering and dealing with the other aspects of their co-existing disorders. Call us now for help (877) 804-1531.