Dual diagnosis refers to the presence of both a severe mental illness and a substance abuse disorder. Integrated dual diagnosis treatment has been shown to work effectively for individuals with both disorders. In this treatment model, one clinician or treatment team provides both mental health and substance abuse treatment services. Many luxury residential dual diagnosis treatment facilities, rehabs and centers in Malibu, CA offer integrated dual diagnosis treatment. As people with mental illnesses, we are also prone to develop problems with alcohol and drug use. This is the definition of dual diagnosis. We tend to use drugs and alcohol for the same reasons that people without a mental illness do, but we are often more sensitive to the negative effects of alcohol and drugs.

The result is that one of every two individuals with severe mental illness has the additional problem of substance abuse, (abuse or dependence related to alcohol or other drugs).

There is good news for dual diagnosis

Most of us with dual diagnosis can achieve recovery, and our lives are much better when we are in recovery. Building a satisfying and meaningful life without drugs or alcohol requires time, support, education, courage, and learning new skills.

You know, depression has been around for a long time. Some people say that great historical figures like Edgar Allen Poe and Vincent van Gogh suffered from extreme fits of depression in their lives. Many times one can find evidence of that in the works of both of them. Depression is a state of extreme sadness that gets so bad on a person that it begins to interrupt their livelihoods, their family life, and all of their social functioning altogether. A person with depression usually has extreme feelings of sadness and dejection that don’t just go away. Depression can make a person feel tired, unmotivated, and apathetic. Some people get their regular feelings of being depressed mixed up with what doctors would call clinical depression. In clinical depression a person can get so bogged down in their negative feelings that it could actually lead to substance abuse. At times, depression can even make its victims contemplate unthinkable things like suicide. That’s how it happened for Vincent van Gogh and that’s actually how it happened for my brother. I wish that we had gotten more information about depression instead of thinking that it would just go away. Maybe if we had my little bro would still be around today.