Treatment

Most people who have walked into a treatment center for either a primary mental health disorder or substance use disorder have experienced some kind of trauma in their lives. A majority of people will experience trauma within their lifetimes, either directly or vicariously, like watching a terrorist attack (or even news coverage of a terrorist attack) on television. Only a small portion of people who experience some form of trauma will experience fully diagnosable PTSD or any symptoms of PTSD. Coping with PTSD can usually lead to the development of other disorders including depression, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, and substance use disorders. Trying to treat any kind of mental health disorder, including substance use disorders, without fully assessing trauma could be like putting a Band-Aid over a gunshot wound. You might be able to stop the bleeding, but you won’t have retrieved the bullet.

After you transition through the various stages of treatment are complete, you’re ready to make your final transition into independent living. You’ll need to create a safe system of trusted mental health professionals to keep you working on your program of recovery. Here are the different kinds of doctors you might need to work with.

Bipolar disorder can be a bewildering mental health disorder to understand, approach, and manage. If you or a loved one might be living with bipolar disorder, here are some often confused facts.

Obsession and compulsion- that is the core of obsessive compulsive disorder. What drives the obsessions in OCD is not usually pleasant. The compulsions are usually small behaviors to try and cope with those unpleasant thoughts. Since the thoughts are categorized as obsessions, that means they aren’t fleeting. The uncomfortable thoughts are persistent, recurring, and ruminating. Meaning, that they don’t stop until they are satisfied in some way. Compulsive behaviors are that way. Compulsions are more than urges, they are obsessive urges, because they are connected to the obsession. Typically, the relationship between the two is irrational. For example, the commonly portrayed version of OCD including a hyperfocus on germs or cleanliness. It’s likely the event causing the obsessive thoughts was relatively “dirty” or made the person feel unclean. Thus, the compulsive behaviors include a focus on sanitation behaviors. Though it makes sense, it's irrational that compulsive, repetitive behaviors will “clean” up the past.

Fine seems to be the most universal human emotion or emotional experience. When we are asked how we are doing, we answer with “fine”. What is “fine” really? Most often than not, it is not how you are doing. In fact, it is usually far from it. Fine is not a word complex enough to encompass what is the wealth of human experiences and emotions you are having at any given moment when someone asks, ‘Hey, how are you?’ Yet somehow the spectrum of humanity got stuffed into the tiny trope of a four letter word: fine. By definition, the word fine means “of high quality”, “thin”. As an adverb, fine means “make or become thinner”. It also means “in a satisfactory or pleasing manner.” In these definitions we can see the actual wisdom behind the answer of fine.

Millions of people around the world struggle with mental health disorders. Most of them will live undiagnosed and untreated for their problems while some will live with manageability of their symptoms most will not. Mental illness is a top contributor to suicide every single day. Substance use disorders like alcoholism and drug addiction are highly co occurring with mental health disorders. People live their entire lives struggling to find peace, balance and happiness within themselves.

Toxic relationships can be as damaging and addictive as drugs and alcohol. Getting out of a toxic relationship isn’t as easy as it might seem. The first step is recognizing that a relationship is toxic. Here are 8 signs to help you determine if you need to evaluate a relationship and take some moves.

Alcoholism is often called a family disease. When a loved one develops a chemical dependency on alcohol, everyone around them is effected. Often, the alcoholic is unaware of how their drinking problem affects other people. After all, as they will often argue, it is their problem and shouldn’t have an effect on anyone else. Unfortunately, it does. The family members and loved ones of an alcoholic have to watch as the person they know slowly turns into someone they don’t. Sometimes, alcoholics can become violent, abusive, and hurtful. Other times they can become withdrawn, neglectful, and absent. No matter how an alcoholic might try to hide their drinking, things still change, and that change is felt by everyone.

A craving is a chemical response in the brain with both psychological and physiological effects. Cravings are usually a sign that a chemical dependency has developed. When cravings come on it indicates a few other things. First, that the brain has made a strong connection between reward and the substance of choice. Second, that the brain is beginning to prioritize the use of the substance over anything else. Third, the body is beginning to need the substance in order to function. Finally, a tolerance has been created, met, and surpassed, for the amount of substance it takes to achieve the desirable effect.

Don’t Talk To Them In The Moment A cardinal rule of telling someone you love that they need help is not talking to them in one of their most helpless moments. For those with substance use disorders it is best not to confront them while they are intoxicated. Finding the right time to talk to someone with a mental health disorder can be tricky. How does one know the right time to talk to someone who is depressed or dealing with anxiety? It is best to schedule a time to talk and check in with them to make sure they are sticking to the commitment. Try not to make it obvious- they could suspect a confrontation or an intervention and run- both literally and figuratively.

“You have to own it” is a popular phrase in the world of therapeutic treatment for drug and alcohol abuse. One might thinking that “owning” drug addiction or alcoholism is something one wouldn’t want to do at all. Rather, one would want to have nothing to do with owning any more drugs, alcohol, or their affiliated disorders. Motivational speaker and leader of the self-help movement Brene Brown once said, “Owning your story is the bravest thing you will ever do.” There is something both valuable and satisfactory about ownership.

Many people consider entry into recovery and make the decision to get sober or seek treatment for a mental health condition as miraculous. How is that someone who compulsively uses drugs and alcohol every day and who has become chemically dependent upon them can suddenly stop? For those addicts and alcoholics who go unconvinced for so many years, it is often a mystery as to how it is their minds, riddled with addiction and the influences of substances, can be changed. Addiction and alcoholism are, if nothing else, remarkably stubborn diseases. Some recovery fellowships have regarded alcoholism with the words, “cunning, baffling, and powerful” to describe the way the brain insidiously convinces someone to do anything but get sober. Yet, every day, people pick up the phone and call a treatment center, family, friend, or loved one. Asking for help, they change their minds to be open to the idea of sobriety. It’s more significant than just deciding they can get sober. They are going against their brain chemistry and pondering the possibility of living without ever using drugs and alcohol again. Understandably, such a feat would be considered miraculous.