Co-Occurring Disorders: An Ultimate Guide

by Kevin Smith Author

Have you been suffering from mental health illness? Did you also witness some other kind of condition in health or behavior lately? Have you been using substances? Did you see any signs of addiction?

The thing is co-occurring disorders happen when one condition arrives due to the presence of some other condition. For instance, someone who has an eating disorder often self-medicates himself with substance use. And by the time he realizes it, it becomes an addiction.

What is Dual Diagnosis?

Also known as a co-occurring disorder, it is the happening of two separate but interrelated diagnoses, namely, psychiatric and addiction. It is strenuous to tell which one comes first. But it is important to note that both are serious problems that need to be addressed simultaneously. That’s because a relapse in one can lead to a relapse in the other.

1) Substance abuse and major mental sickness

2) Substance abuse and a personality disorder

3) Substance abuse and its induced acute symptoms like depression, hallucination, and others, and personality disorder.

Despite being a common condition, it has hardly ever been recognized. But the truth is that more than half of the population that is drug or alcohol abuser, is also suffering from at least one serious mental illness. And around 30 percent of mental health patients take self-medication to alleviate their stress and depressive thoughts.

The kinds of mental or emotional problems seen in people with this ailment usually include depression, anxiety, and personality disorder. Bipolar, panic, obsessive-compulsive, phobias, and schizophrenia are some other conditions that occur in tandem with alcohol and drug dependency.

Regardless of the stigma revolving around depressive illness, it is a serious illness that involves the brain. It is the stage higher than anxiety and often requires medication. Some of its common and actively seen symptoms are sadness, loss of interest in things or activities you used to enjoy before, insomnia, oversleeping, feeling of worthlessness, suicidal thoughts, changing weight, and laziness.

Also called manic-depressive illness, bipolar disorder is the condition due to which people experience dramatic mood swings. They can go from overly energetic to sad or hopeless being, and then back again. Here, mania is the up feeling and depression is the down feeling.

Anxiety is painful and can cause chest pains or nightmares. Someone anxious would fear to leave home, experience panic attacks, show obsessive-compulsive behavior, and would have phobias.

Severe, lifelong brain disorder, schizophrenia can make people hear voices or see things that aren’t actually there. People suffering from this disease generally show symptoms like unusual thoughts or perceptions, difficulty speaking or expressing, problems with attention, memory, and organization, and disorders of movement.

A personality disorder is a reason why many people have stormy relationships. Problems with relationships and work are the serious and harmful outcomes of long-term patterns of thoughts and behaviors.

Which Develops First?

No one can tell you explicitly which issue happened first and triggered the other one. Yet, in most cases, the psychiatric problem is being seen developing first. And in an attempt to feel calmer, more cheerful, or peppier, people begin drinking or taking drugs. Doctors call this ‘self-medication’, which can turn into addiction if not controlled in time. And when that happens, things get worse than getting better. Now, instead of one, there are two ailments that need simultaneous treatment for fast recovery. Furthermore, in other cases, substance abuse is the primary condition that instigates the development of symptoms of a psychiatric ailment.

Even doctors find it difficult to tell which one came first at the initial examination. Therefore, they ask the patient to go through alcohol or drug withdrawal to accurately assess the underlying problem.

Once identified, professionals start treating both the problems simultaneously. As per a survey, it is seen that one none of the diseases are addressed, one of them worsens the other. And when one of them is addressed, the therapy stands partially effective. However, when both are considered together, the chances of full and lasting recovery boost.