Welcome to the Mental Illnesses and Disorders section of the Addictive Addiction website. This site is mainly about drugs, abuse and addiction. But more often than not there is a very close connection to mental illness in every single case of substance abuse and addiction.
The addiction has either resulted because of a mental illness, or it has triggered such an issue. So, it’s important to bring both of these issues onto the same platform and to treat them with the same importance. That’s what we have done here on Addictive Addiction and that’s why you will find a host of co-occurring disorders in this section.
How to Use This Section
To use this section of the Addictive Addiction website just take a look at the menu above and hover over it. When you do all of the available articles in that section will pop up. We haven’t listed them here because that menu is updated automatically and every hour, whereas this one page requires a little more effort and wouldn’t be as up to date.
You can also use the search bar. This can be found in the sidebar, which means it is right where you need it wherever you are on this website. Just type in what you’re looking for and you will be presented with a host of articles, guides, tags and more that relate to your search query.
There is a wealth of content on this site, so get out there and start reading it now.
More Information
If you can’t find the help and the info that you need on this site then it might just be a matter of time. We are adding content to this site all of the time, with dozens of guides popping up every single month. Many of these relate to addiction, abuse and detox, sections that you can find on this site. But we also cover mental illness and co-occurring disorders as much as possible as well.
If you have searched, waited and you still can’t find what you’re looking for, then get in touch via our Contact Page and make a request. We can’t promise to follow through with it, but we will certainly try. Just let us know what you want to see on this site and we’ll do what we can.
You could also write it yourself, of course. If this sounds like something you want to do then get in touch with us via our Write For Us page. Here you will find guidelines relating to the content that we’r looking for and the processes that you need to follow. Stick to these guidelines, send us the content and we’ll be happy to take a look.
Treating Addiction and Co-Occurring Disorders
There are a number of problems with treating addiction in patients who present with co-occurring disorders. Not only are those patients more vulnerable, but many of their symptoms may also be masked and/or mimicked by their drug use.
For instance, sleeping problems, malaise, fatigue, agitation and depression are all common in major depressive disorder, bipolar and other mood disorders, but they also present as withdrawal symptoms for opiate addiction. At the same time, feelings of excitement, talking very fast, struggling to sleep and feeling “wired” are all symptoms of bipolar disorder and in particular the “manic” stage, but they also present during abuse of amphetamines, meth and cocaine.
To counteract this issue and make sure everything is clear, addiction psychiatrists will look to spend some time with the patient. They will look to their family history. They will ask them to be open about their drug use and they may look to see them over the course of several appointments. It is very important to take care over this stage of the process because an incorrect diagnosis could put the health of the individual at risk.