How Co-Occurring Disorders Are Treated

The brain is a wonderful yet mysterious organ, despite all these years of medical research. One thing is clear, some conditions that affect the brain need specialized intervention if the treatment regimen is to be successful. One such condition is co-occurring disorders.

A co-occurring disorder is a mental health disorder accompanied by a substance use disorder (SUD).. A person may develop a mental health disorder as a result of the SUD, it inhibits their ability to control chemical substance use. Around half of the people experiencing SUD end up developing a mental disorder such as anxiety, depression, bipolar, personality disorders, among others. In other cases, a person with an untreated mental health disorder turns to substance abuse in a way to “self-medicate” their uncontrolled mental health issue.

The co-existence of these two conditions lays the foundations for co-occurring disorders.

Diagnosis and Treatment

For someone seeking help for their substance use disorder, it’s best to first visit a health care provider for a specialized assessment designed to identify mental health disorders along with substance use disorders. This ensures the provider conducts a proper evaluation of the SUD, along with any other underlying condition.

It can be somewhat of a challenge for the healthcare provider to carry out a suitable diagnosis. They must have the correct assessment tools available for the treatment to happen and to help mitigate the chances of a misdiagnosis.

The widely accepted approach to treating an individual experiencing co-occurring disorders is to have all the existing conditions managed simultaneously. Whenever the healthcare provider makes a diagnosis, they will indicate it is a dual one.

Health care providers can administer the treatments in several ways. What is most important is that the treatments should be targeted at the patient’s specific combination of symptoms and disorders. It’s also prudent to consider the person’s age, the preferred substance, and the specific mental disorders.

Behavioral Therapies

Treating people experiencing SUD can mean having them undergo some type of behavioral therapy if you want them to avoid having a relapse. There are various behavioral therapy methods recommended for patients, especially adults, that have shown exceptional promise.

Depending on the opinion of the healthcare provider, they may also prescribe medications administered to the patient in conjunction with behavioral therapy. Some examples of such therapies include

• Assertive Community Treatment (ACT): For individuals in a supportive community, the ACT places emphasis on the patient reaching out to their community together with a personalized treatment approach.
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: This is a form of talk therapy designed to help patients cope with challenges through changing behaviors and difficult, irrational thoughts.
• Contingency Management: It’s a form of positive reinforcement where healthy behaviors are encouraged through offering rewards or vouchers for desired habits.
• Dialectical Behavior Therapy: This method employs aspects of mindfulness, which is the acceptance of, being aware of, and being attentive to current situations as well as an emotional state. DBT also incorporates skills to help control self-destructive behaviors and strong emotions.
• Therapeutic Communities: TCs help patients develop healthier attitudes, behaviors, and values through long-term residential treatment facilities.

Children and adolescents can also have specific types of behavioral therapy that include multisystemic therapy, multidimensional family therapy, and brief strategic family therapy.

Medications

In cases where the healthcare provider recommends using medications alongside therapy to treat the SUDs, the treatment facilities are going to make available the requisite medicine. Alcohol, opioid, and nicotine addictions have specific medication to help treat the conditions. The same goes for many mental disorders.

Some prescriptions are good enough to treat multiple disorders. Their use is dependent on the mental condition of the patient, and the recommendation of the mental healthcare provider.

Learn More About Treatment for Co-Occurring Disorders

It can be tough to witness someone you love, or even yourself, having to deal with substance abuse, a mental disorder, or even both. While the current situation can be terrible, there is hope for a bright future. All it needs is for that person to take a step towards getting treatment.

Co-occurring disorders can be disheartening, but as this article has illustrated, there is a way out of it. Getting treatment for it requires the help of a mental healthcare professional, and the facilities that provide the right environment for such treatments.

This is the entire purpose of Kolbe Addiction Services. We’d like to see you or your loved one kick that destructive disorder and turn your life around. If you’d like to learn more about our treatments, we have just the resource for you.

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