How to Cope with Depression and Anxiety in Addiction Recovery
When someone goes through addiction treatment, they might be figuring out how to cope with depression and anxiety during the recovery process. It’s common to face mental health issues while suffering from an addiction. When this occurs, it’s even more critical to go to rehab and get treated for your addiction and mental health disorder. In addition to relying on your internal support system, whether this is your friends, family, therapist, or mentor, professional addiction treatment at a place like Resurgence Behavioral Health is the best way to achieve lasting recovery. Let’s explore the connection between depression and anxiety in addiction recovery.
How Are Depression and Anxiety Related to Addiction?
Depression is a mental health disorder that negatively affects how you feel, think, act, and view the world. Anxiety is when someone has consistent feelings of fear, dread, and uneasiness for the future or something occurring currently. To some extent, every person has anxiety, but someone with an anxiety disorder can’t function properly with their regular responsibilities because anxiety overtakes their daily thoughts. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, studies show that people with mental health disorders like depression and anxiety can be more likely to use drugs or alcohol as a form of self-medication. Even if drugs and alcohol are used consistently to medicate anxiety and depression mental health disorders, they are only a temporary fix — and the symptoms of your mental health disorders can worsen over time. Substance use might also trigger changes in your brain structure and normal functionality, which can make someone more likely to develop a mental health disorder.
It’s important for someone who is diagnosed with addiction and co-occurring mental health disorders to get treated for both conditions simultaneously. The treatment plan should be tailored to the patient, specific to their mental health disorders and addiction history. Resurgence Behavioral Health offers addiction treatment and co-occurring mental health disorders treatment for our patients because we know we have to treat both to truly help people achieve recovery.
Signs of Co-Occurring Disorders
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 20.4 million adults in 2023 had a co-occurring substance use disorder and mental health disorder. Some people have no idea they are even suffering from a mental illness on top of their addiction because it just feels like another symptom of substance use disorder. Some symptoms directly correlate with co-occurring disorders and addiction, including:
- Sudden behavioral changes.
- Isolating yourself from social situations.
- Intense cravings.
- Using substances to cope with emotions.
- Increased fatigue.
- Confusion.
- Suicidal thoughts.
Someone more prone to having a co-occurring disorder likely has certain environmental and personal factors that can contribute to it, such as family history, negative experiences like trauma, social influence, and a lack of support. It could feel like you’re alone in the diagnosis of co-occurring disorders, but other people are struggling with similar mental health disorders and addiction. Resurgence Behavioral Health can provide relief to you by offering co-occurring disorder treatment in rehab.
Dual Diagnosis Treatment Options
According to MedlinePlus, dual diagnosis is when you have a mental health disorder and substance use disorder. This is used interchangeably with co-occurring disorders. Common risk factors contributing to mental health disorders and addiction include stress, self-medication, and genetics. The symptoms can shift from one disorder to the other, such as relying on alcohol or drugs to medicate mental health symptoms, as well as addiction causing mental disorder symptoms. The dual-diagnosis treatment options offered at Resurgence Behavioral Health include:
- Individual Therapy: This is a series of one-on-one sessions between the patient and therapist. One of the main therapeutic approaches used is cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), when the therapist guides the patient to view negative situations and thought patterns from a different point of view, looking at a more productive and positive way.
- Medication Management: Getting prescribed the proper medication for treating mental health disorders and addiction, and having the dosage monitored and adjusted as needed, can help patients deal with the symptoms of their disorders.
- Family Therapy: This is a type of group therapy, but it only involves the patient and their family members. This is a safe place for the patient and their loved ones to voice any concerns or anything they need to work on while in rehab for dual diagnosis treatment.
- Aftercare Planning: Not only is a treatment plan required during rehab, but an aftercare plan is essential as well. The patient needs direct orders and responsibilities lined up after rehab to know how to cope with addiction and co-occurring disorders in the real world. If the patient has any issues or struggles after rehab, they can always reach out to Resurgence Behavioral Health for support and help with extra resources.
A dual-diagnosis treatment program might help you learn how to cope with depression and anxiety. Resurgence Behavioral Health will work with you to come up with a tailored and personalized treatment plan during rehab. This rehab process only works properly if the patient continues to communicate any concerns or pain points during the process that might not be working for co-occurring disorder treatment. Specialists at Resurgence Behavioral Health will be by your side the whole time you receive treatment and will continue to adjust treatment plans as needed.
Find Out How to Cope with Depression and Anxiety at Resurgence Behavioral Health
When learning how to cope with depression and anxiety during addiction treatment and recovery, you can always call a rehab you trust to get more information. Resurgence Behavioral Health specializes in treating co-occurring disorders and can help patients figure out how to cope and treat their addiction and mental health disorders at the same time. Some patients might not even realize they have a mental health issue in addition to their addiction, but the initial assessment done by specialists at Resurgence Behavioral Health will reveal and diagnose any underlying mental health disorders the patient might have. It’s important to be treated for addiction and mental health struggles at the same time for the best results in recovery. To learn more about how treatment can help, call Resurgence Behavioral Health at 855-458-0050.
External Sources
MedlinePlus — Dual Diagnosis Treatment
National Institute of Mental Health — Co-Occurring Mental Disorders
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration — Substance Use Disorder and Mental Health Disorder Statistics
