So you’ve gone through rehab and you’re ready to begin a new life free from addiction—that’s wonderful. You’ve gone through a difficult period in your life, one that you deserve to never have to experience again. Gaining sobriety is a great moment in anyone’s life. However, there’s one word that presents a potential problem: relapse. This problem plagues many people who are trying to recover from addiction, and it is often heavily influenced by underlying mental health disorders.
Thankfully, it’s possible to avoid relapse with the help of a relapse prevention plan. This incredible treatment option helps address your addictive impulses as well as any mental health problems that may be derailing your life. You deserve to know everything you can about this vital and effective treatment.
What Are Co-Occurring Disorders?
Co-occurring disorders are a relatively easy process to understand. Basically, it is the simultaneous treatment of mental health concerns and addiction. The treatments for these conditions will vary depending on the severity and condition of each. For example, cocaine addiction won’t require the opioid withdrawal treatments necessary for heroin addiction. Likewise, different mental health problems will require specific and fine-tuned treatments.
People who suffer from severe depression receive no benefits from medications designed to treat psychotic mentalities. That’s why it’s important to diagnose your mental health disorder as soon as possible. Typical mental health concerns that may contribute to addiction include:
- Depression
- Social anxiety
- Borderline personality disorder
- PTSD
As you work with your therapist, they’ll be able to diagnose and create a relapse prevention plan that is tailored specifically to you.
How a Plan Can Help You Avoid Relapse in Recovery
When you relapse, you are typically responding to addiction triggers that forced you to use in the past. Many of these triggers will be associated with the mental health concern that is impacting your life. Imagine the impact untreated depression symptoms will have on your desire to use. The withdrawal pain of quitting drugs combined with the negative mental impact will leave you desperate for relief. As a result, you may quickly turn back to drugs in order to feel a sense of stability. Even though you know it’s not healthy, it’s at least some type of structure.
Co-occurring disorders treatment helps avoid this problem by treating your mental health concern and removing it as an influence on your addiction. It also helps adjust your behaviors to steer you away from falling back into patterns of use. Remember, the mind craves structure and will fall back into a routine easily without correction, even if it is negative. Essentially, dual diagnosis gives you the personal strength that you need to begin a healthy and happy life. You won’t feel the pain of depression or the compulsiveness of borderline personality disorder. Instead, you’ll feel a sense of calm, purpose, and joy. The idea of using drugs again will go against this happy structure, keeping you safe from relapsing.
The Most Effective Treatments for Co-Occurring Disorders
Co-occurring disorders treatment uses a variety of techniques to help treat addiction. This diversity of approach helps ensure that people with multiple problems can get the help they need. It also fine-tunes therapy to find the treatment type that works for you. Typically, a dual diagnosis will include treatments like:
- Withdrawal therapy – Weans you off of your substance in a healthy manner and uses replacement medicines to minimize dangerous reactions
- Dietary and medical treatments – Helps treat health problems, like malnutrition, that may be plaguing your life and helps teach you how to take better care of your body and mind
- Personal, group, or family therapy – Get to the roots of your mental health concerns and trace how they influence your addiction
- Talk therapy – Learn how to cope with symptoms of depression and mania
- Cognitive-behavioral therapy – Discover new coping mechanisms for mastering your mental health concerns and beating back cravings
- Dialectical behavior therapy – Specifically designed for those with a borderline personality disorder
- 12-step programs – Give you a structured and thoughtful guide for regaining your sobriety
You and your addiction specialist will work together to find the treatment that will fully address your addiction and mental health problems.
Reach Out to Woodland Recovery Center Mississippi Today
There’s nothing quite like taking your care into your own hands and working to regain a life that is happy and far from the influence of drugs. A growing number of drug rehab centers are turning to co-occurring disorders treatment as a means of treating addiction and ensuring that sobriety lasts the rest of your life. At Woodland Recovery Center Mississippi, we help those in our care work through their mental health symptoms during treatment to give patients their greatest chance of finding lasting recovery.
Contact us at 662.222.2989 today to learn more.
