A report1 from the National Institutes on Drug Abuse showed that:
- 60% of adolescents in substance use disorder (SUD) treatment programs meet the criteria for a mental illness diagnosis
- 43% of adults in treatment for abuse of prescription painkillers have a diagnosis or display symptoms of depression, anxiety, or other mental health disorders
For many, underlying mental illness fuels addiction. If you have an addiction and a mental illness, there is more to lasting recovery than simply sobriety. You’ll want to find a substance abuse treatment center that can attend to your addiction and mental health needs.
Read on to hear from our Utah drug rehab professionals on why mental health should be a main focus in addiction recovery.
(Tima Miroshnichenko/pexels)
The Comorbidity of Addiction and Mental Illness
Asking about the connection between addiction and mental illness can feel like the age-old question, “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” The truth is, they often grow side by side. For some, mental health struggles precipitate the addiction. For others, mental illness develops because of the addiction. But always, addiction and mental illness worsen the symptoms of the other.
You may have started using substances to calm anxiety or numb persistent sadness. At first, the relief may have felt immediate, but with continued use, you needed stronger doses to achieve the same level of relief. Soon, you started experiencing negative side effects from drinking or using drugs that added tenfold to your pre-existing mental condition.
This cycle can be hard to see when you are in the middle of it. You may think the drug problem is the only issue because it causes the most visible damage. Yet once the drugs are gone, the emotional distress often becomes apparent.
Mental health symptoms can also intensify relapse risk. If you leave treatment with no plan for your depression, trauma, or severe anxiety, you will end up facing the same pain that drove you to use substances before. Recovery leaves you without your usual coping strategies, which may lead you to feel more fragile than before.
Sobriety Requires Mental Health Support
Early recovery often comes with a surge of effort and hope. You may feel determined to change your life. Then the emotional weight starts rising. You cannot numb the pain with substances anymore, and the adjustment period is harder than anticipated. This is where many people feel confused. They expected sobriety to be a magic fix for their problems and bring peace right away, yet they still feel overwhelmed.
Drugs may have covered mental health symptoms for months or years. Once the bandage is gone, the pain underneath bubbles to the surface. Some people deal with racing thoughts. Others feel emotionally flat, depressed, or quick to anger. Without proper intervention, these reactions can make you wonder if using substances is easier than staying the course.
Receiving mental health care while you are still in the safety of a men’s or women’s substance abuse treatment center gives you the framework to prepare for such an experience. Instead of treating your emotional struggles like a personal failure, you learn what symptoms belong to trauma, what patterns connect to anxiety, and what healthy coping mechanisms work best for you.
What Integrated Care Looks Like
Integrated care, often called dual-diagnosis treatment, means your treatment plan addresses substance use and mental health together. This way, you heal your whole self instead of running triage, solving one first, then running back to get the other later like you’re playing a no-win game of Whac-a-Mole. Both of your illnesses affect your stability and demand proper care and attention.
This kind of care may include:
- Individual therapy to work through trauma, grief, and negative thought patterns
- Group counseling so you know that you aren’t alone in your struggles
- Medication to help regulate your depression, anxiety, or related symptoms
- Strict and standardized routines to improve your sleep, stress, and emotional regulation
Each part of integrated care plays an essential role in helping you achieve full recovery.
Mental Health Care Builds Stronger Recovery
Mental health treatment sets you up for success because you learn the “why” behind your addiction. You understand your triggers with more precision. You recognize when you are emotionally overwhelmed and know how to self-regulate. You also learn how to ask for help before you reach the breaking point.
For example, if you know your drug use often follows a reminder of a traumatic event, you can create a plan to address those moments directly. That could look like breath work, grounding skills, or attending a group meeting. Those tools let you choose a positive response rather than reacting rashly.
Treat the Whole Person
Even though your addiction may have overtaken your life, you are so much more than an addict. The goal of recovery is to get you back to who you were pre-addiction. That means there is a lot of work to do and lots to undo. Addiction affects your body, mind, relationships, and sense of self. Your treatment should reflect that reality and strive to address every area in your life.
Move Forward With a Strong Foundation
If you are in recovery and still struggling emotionally, take that seriously. You do not need to settle for white-knuckling your way through sobriety. Your recovery is only as good as your mental health.
It’s time to look into treatment centers that will set you up for long-term success. When you receive attention for your addiction and mental health struggles, your recovery has a solid foundation to build on.
1https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK571451/