Where can I find help for dual diagnosis?

Help for dual diagnosis can be found at specialized treatment centers that offer integrated care for mental health and substance use disorders. It's important to look for programs that specifically mention dual diagnosis or co-occurring disorder treatment. Healthcare providers, mental health professionals, or local health departments can also provide referrals to suitable programs.

Is it common for individuals with dual diagnosis to relapse?

Relapse can be a part of the recovery process for some individuals with dual diagnosis, given the complex nature of these conditions. However, integrated treatment plans are designed to reduce the likelihood of relapse by addressing the root causes of both disorders and equipping individuals with strategies to manage triggers and cravings.

How can families support a loved one with dual diagnosis?

Families can support a loved one by encouraging them to seek and continue treatment, offering emotional support, educating themselves about dual diagnosis, and possibly participating in family therapy sessions. It's also important for families to set healthy boundaries and seek support for themselves through resources like support groups.

Are there any specific medications used in treating dual diagnosis?

Yes, specific medications may be used to treat the mental health aspect of dual diagnosis, such as atypical antipsychotics for schizophrenia or mood stabilizers for bipolar disorder. The choice of medication depends on the individual's specific mental health condition and substance use issues. Medications may also be used to manage withdrawal symptoms or cravings associated with substance use disorder.

What are the challenges in treating dual diagnosis?

Treating dual diagnosis presents several challenges, including the complexity of diagnosing and managing two co-occurring disorders, overcoming stigma, ensuring access to integrated treatment programs, and addressing the individual's holistic needs, including emotional and socioeconomic factors.

How does inpatient treatment benefit individuals with dual diagnosis?

Inpatient treatment offers a structured and supportive environment that is crucial for individuals with dual diagnosis. This setting provides constant care, removes individuals from potentially triggering environments, and allows for the intensive treatment needed to address both disorders simultaneously. It also facilitates the development of coping strategies and life skills essential for long-term recovery.

Can dual diagnosis be cured?

While “cure” may not be the term used in the context of dual diagnosis, effective management and recovery are possible. With appropriate integrated treatment, individuals can achieve significant improvement in both their mental health and substance use issues, leading to a better quality of life.

What does integrated treatment for dual diagnosis involve?

Integrated treatment for dual diagnosis typically involves a combination of pharmacotherapy (medication), psychosocial treatments (like cognitive-behavioral therapy, motivational interviewing, and group counseling), and personalized care plans that are tailored to the individual's specific needs. This approach may also include support for related issues, such as housing, employment, and relationship counseling.

Why is integrated treatment recommended for dual diagnosis?

Integrated treatment is recommended because it addresses both the mental health disorder and the substance use disorder together, rather than treating them separately. Research has shown that this approach leads to better outcomes, as it tackles the complex interplay between the disorders, offering a more comprehensive and effective form of care.

What is dual diagnosis?

Dual diagnosis refers to the co-occurrence of a substance use disorder (SUD) and a mental health disorder in an individual. It means that someone is struggling with both mental health issues, like anxiety, depression, or schizophrenia, and substance abuse, such as alcohol or drug addiction, simultaneously.

WHAT SERVICES ARE INCLUDED IN MY HOSPITAL BILL?

If you are viewing estimates provided on this website, the pricing includes estimated room and board, supplies, nursing care, equipment use, nutritional services, and any services handled by the staff of the hospital within the walls of the hospital. It does not include services from outside providers such as lab or doctors fees.

WHAT IS PRICING TRANSPARENCY?

“Pricing Transparency” is the term used to describe initiatives in the healthcare industry to provide meaningful pricing information to consumers. The healthcare industry is often complex and difficult for consumers to navigate. Price transparency is a means of providing consumers price information on common services. Our hospital is committed to presenting pricing information on its website in a way that will be easy for the consumer to access and understand, as well as providing other useful information about financial assistance available, definitions of key terminology, and key financial policies.

Are There Any Anxiety Medications Safe with Alcohol?

It is generally not safe to mix alcohol with anxiety medications. Alcohol can interfere with the effectiveness of the medication and increase the risk of side effects. It's crucial to consult with a healthcare provider for guidance on this matter.

Can Alcohol Cause Anxiety Disorders?

While alcohol itself may not directly cause anxiety disorders, its misuse can lead to the development or exacerbation of anxiety symptoms. Those with pre-existing anxiety may find their condition worsens with alcohol use.

How Do I Stop Anxiety after Drinking Alcohol?

To manage anxiety after drinking, it's important to reduce or stop alcohol consumption, practice healthy coping skills, and seek professional treatment if needed, especially for those with a co-occurring disorder.

Is Hangxiety a Real Thing?

Yes, “hangxiety” is a real phenomenon. It's a colloquial term combining “hangover” and “anxiety,” describing the feelings of anxiety and panic experienced during a hangover, often due to depleted GABA levels in the brain.

Does Alcohol Cause Anxiety?

Long-term alcohol use can lead to worsening anxiety. For instance, the experience of “hangxiety” after heavy drinking exemplifies how alcohol can induce anxiety-like symptoms.

Does Alcohol Make Anxiety Worse?

Yes, alcohol can worsen anxiety. Over time, dependence on alcohol to relax can lead to an increased risk of developing alcoholism. Furthermore, reliance on alcohol for managing anxiety can amplify anxiety symptoms when sober, potentially leading to co-occurring disorders.

Does Alcohol Reduce Anxiety?

While alcohol initially reduces stress and makes one feel at ease, it's only a short-term effect. In the long term, it does not effectively reduce anxiety and can actually exacerbate anxiety symptoms.

Does Alcohol Help Anxiety?

Temporarily, alcohol can create feelings of relaxation and sociability due to its depressant effects on the central nervous system. However, it's not a reliable or healthy method for managing anxiety.

Do Track Marks Go Away?

Some track marks can heal and become barely noticeable, while others, particularly in areas of thin skin or repeated puncture, may lead to irreversible skin and vein damage, resulting in permanent scars or marks.

How to Get Rid of Track Marks?

Healing from track marks involves stopping IV drug use and adopting practices like using clean needles, maintaining wound cleanliness, wearing compression socks, and improving circulation through exercise. Medical evaluation and potentially plastic or vascular surgery can also reduce the appearance of damaged veins.

Are There Dangers of Intravenous Drug Use?

Beyond track marks, IV drug use poses significant health risks, including vein damage, infections, collapsed veins, bloodstream infections affecting major organs, and skin infections like abscesses.

How Long Do Track Marks Last?

The duration of track marks varies. Some may heal and leave minimal scarring, but others, especially in areas with thin skin like hands and feet, can cause permanent visible marks and scar tissue.

Where Can Track Marks Appear?

Commonly found on the forearms, track marks can appear anywhere on the body. IV drug users often use non-dominant arms for injection, but they may also use other areas like hands, feet, neck, and groin, especially when trying to conceal their drug use.

What Do Track Marks Look Like?

Fresh track marks appear as unhealed puncture wounds. Over time and with repeated use, they can darken the skin's pigmentation and may also present as bruising, scarring, lesions, and visible vein damage.

What Are Track Marks?

Track marks are the visible signs on the skin resulting from intravenous (IV) drug use. They appear as scars or pinpoint spots, usually due to repeated injections in the same area, causing skin and vein damage.

What does Tusi Lavada mean?

“Tusi lavada” refers to a specific form or variant of the drug tusi, which is the colloquial name for pink cocaine. The term “lavada” in Spanish translates to “washed” in English. In the context of drug terminology, this could imply that the tusi has been processed or purified in some way. However, the exact meaning can vary depending on the local context and the specifics of how the drug is prepared or marketed. It's important to be cautious with such terms, as they can reflect regional slang or specific methods used in the illicit drug trade, and their meanings can differ significantly. Additionally, the composition and safety of such substances are highly unpredictable, contributing to their danger.

“Tusi” or “tuci” is a local term used to refer to pink cocaine, particularly in Colombia. It is a synthetic drug known scientifically as 2C-B. Unlike traditional cocaine, tusi is not derived from the coca plant but is instead a laboratory-made substance. This drug is a combination of pink food coloring, strawberry flavoring, ketamine, caffeine, and MDMA, and its effects are more akin to ecstasy rather than cocaine. Developed in the 1970s by chemist Alexander Shulgin, tusi was initially created for treating erectile dysfunction and boosting libido. However, it was later classified as a Schedule I Controlled substance and taken off the market due to its high potential for abuse and lack of accepted medical use. In the club scene, especially among younger adults, tusi is known for its party-enhancing effects.

What is Pink Cocaine?

Pink cocaine, despite its name, is not a type of cocaine. It is a synthetic drug, classified as phenylethylamine 2C-B, which includes a combination of pink food coloring, strawberry flavoring, ketamine, caffeine, and MDMA. This composition means that its effects more closely resemble those of ecstasy, rather than traditional cocaine. Originally developed in the 1970s by chemist Alexander Shulgin, it was intended for treating erectile dysfunction and enhancing libido, and was sold under names like Performax or Erox until its reclassification as a Schedule I Controlled substance in the United States in 1995. Pink cocaine is popular among teens and young adults in the club scene, and its use can lead to a range of side effects, including hallucinations, euphoria, nausea, rapid heartbeat, and in severe cases, seizures and respiratory depression.

What are Valium overdose symptoms?

Symptoms of a Valium overdose include severe drowsiness, confusion, limp muscles, and slow reflexes. In more serious cases, a person might have trouble breathing, become unconscious, or fall into a coma. If you think someone has overdosed on Valium, it's important to get medical help right away because it can be life-threatening.

What is the Valium antidote?

The antidote for a Valium overdose is a drug called flumazenil. It can quickly reverse the effects of Valium by blocking it from working on the brain. This antidote is usually given in a hospital setting where healthcare providers can closely monitor the patient because it can also cause withdrawal symptoms in people who are dependent on Valium.

How Much Valium Is Too Much?

The amount of Valium that is too much will vary from person to person. Factors like your age, weight, overall health, and whether you've taken it before all play a role. Generally, doctors will prescribe the lowest effective dose to minimize the risk of overdose. Taking more Valium than prescribed, or mixing it with other substances like alcohol, can quickly become dangerous.

Is Valium a Narcotic?

Valium is not considered a narcotic. Narcotics are drugs that relieve pain and dull the senses, and are often opioids like morphine or hydrocodone. Valium, however, is a benzodiazepine and is used mainly to treat anxiety and muscle spasms by calming the nervous system. While not a narcotic, Valium is still a controlled substance because it has the potential for abuse and dependence.

What are benzodiazepines?

Benzodiazepines are a type of medication that helps to relax the nervous system. They are often used to treat anxiety, panic disorders, and insomnia because they can calm the brain and help with sleep. Common benzodiazepines include drugs like Valium, Xanax, and Ativan. They are effective but need to be used carefully because they can cause dependence and withdrawal if used long-term.

Valium is a medication known by the generic name diazepam. It belongs to a group of drugs called benzodiazepines and is used to treat conditions like anxiety, muscle spasms, and seizures. Valium works by calming the brain and nerves, and it is also used to help with alcohol withdrawal symptoms.

Can you overdose on Valium?

Yes, it is possible to overdose on Valium. Taking more than the recommended dose, or using it in ways not prescribed by a doctor, can lead to serious health problems. An overdose can slow down your breathing, cause confusion, make you feel sleepy or even fall into a coma. It's important to always take Valium exactly as prescribed to avoid these risks.

Alcohol and Depression: How Are They Connected? • The Willough at Naples Behavioral Hospital

Physicians and researchers have observed the ties between alcohol and depression for decades. With high rates of overlap between the two, it becomes natural to wonder more about the extent of their connection. Does alcohol abuse cause depression? Does depression lead to addiction? Or is the relationship between alcohol and depression more complex than that?

Today, we want to delve deeper into the evident connections between mental health conditions and substance use disorders. Read further to discover the answers to all of your questions about the connection between alcohol and depression.

Table of Contents

Symptoms of Depression

Before we can discuss how alcohol and depression are connected, it may help to know how to identify depression alone. Depressive disorders come in several shapes and sizes, and they don’t always affect everyone in the same way.

For example, some people know depression as constant sadness and a deep-rooted sense of anguish. For others, depression is more like an empty void that prevents them from feeling anything at all.

Other common symptoms of depression include:

Fatigue
Difficulty falling or staying asleep
Losing interest in hobbies or activities
Irritability
Difficulty concentrating or completing tasks
Unexplained aches and pains
Thoughts of death or dying

If someone exhibits at least five symptoms of depression for two weeks or longer, they may have major depression. Under certain circumstances, substance use can be one of these symptoms, which is often the source of the relationship between alcohol and depression. But before any conclusions can be reached, it’s important to learn how to tell when someone’s drinking habits have reached a problematic level.

Signs of Alcohol Abuse

Addiction to alcohol and depression can exist independently of one another. Therefore, before we evaluate how they interact, we also need to address alcohol abuse as a standalone issue

Heavy alcohol consumption is difficult to define in a singular way. Factors like sex, weight, and genetics can affect how alcohol influences any given individual. Broadly speaking, though, heavy drinking in men is defined as 15 or more drinks in a week. For women, the number of drinks per week drops to eight.

Even with that in mind, occasional instances of heavy drinking don’t always indicate addiction. To determine whether someone’s alcohol consumption is a problem, they must consider additional signs and symptoms as well.

Some of the warning signs of alcohol misuse include:

An inability to stop drinking once you start
Friends and family expressing concern
Feeling guilty about drinking
Wanting to drink less but not being able to stop
Drinking with the intention to forget
The development of a mental health problem (i.e. depression, anxiety, or memory issues)
Needing to drink in greater amounts to achieve the same effect as before
Neglecting hobbies or necessary tasks to pursue drinking

The Connection Between Alcohol and Depression

The ties between alcohol and depression go both ways. First, individuals with depression may come to rely on alcohol to escape their troubles for a short time. Alcohol clouds their minds and may help them relax. In the throes of depression, a break from the anguish and distress can sound very appealing, even (or especially) if it means forgetting the times they are intoxicated.

With that said, alcohol is not a healthy coping mechanism. It may succeed in temporarily burying someone’s stressors, but the long-term effects of alcohol abuse are not worth a brief reprieve. In other cases, if alcohol abuse comes first, those very effects could actually be what leads to depression in the first place. In this way, alcohol and depression can bring out the worst in each condition.

Alcohol addiction is isolating and demoralizing. People have lost their jobs, homes, and relationships to severe addiction. As troubles continue to pile on top of each other, individuals grow all the more likely to return to alcohol as a temporary solution.

It becomes a vicious cycle that many struggle to stop. Drinking can drive away someone’s support system, increasing the risk of depression, and when symptoms of it appear, they only drink more to cope.

How Alcohol and Depression Alter Moods

Through a more scientific and biological lens, what happens to the body when someone chooses to drink alcohol? Alcohol and depression are linked by more than environmental factors that bring them in close contact. Alcohol has a genuine, chemical impact on the brain and its processes.

To start, alcohol is a depressant that targets the central nervous system. Depressants slow brain activity, which results in a number of behavioral, cognitive, and mood changes. This is why people often experience memory problems, coordination issues, and lowered inhibitions when they drink alcohol.

In terms of mood, alcohol can influence people to feel a few different ways. Some people find that it helps them unwind and calm down. Others may experience worsened anxiety or a boost in confidence.

Moreover, the impairment of the brain’s decision-making functions can lead people to make decisions they later regret. If someone has depression and partakes in risky activities while intoxicated, like spending large sums of money or getting into a fight, their depression symptoms may worsen once the effects of alcohol wear off.

Alcohol and Depression Treatment

Someone may think that having both an addiction to alcohol and depression would require two different types of treatment. As it turns out, though, that’s not entirely correct. Co-occurring disorders should not be treated one at a time. Instead, because they’re often so closely tied together, they benefit far more from specialized dual diagnosis treatment. For this reason, alcohol and depression are best addressed as part of one, larger issue.

But where does treatment for alcohol and depression start?

Medical Detox

The first stage of any addiction treatment often involves a medical detox. Detox is necessary for those who have developed an alcohol dependence, which may occur after drinking excessively for a consistent, long time. In such a case, their body forgets how to function properly without alcohol. As a result, it needs a transitionary period to adjust back to normal.

During detox, unpleasant withdrawal symptoms are common. A medical detox allows someone to stop drinking alcohol safely, even with these symptoms in mind. The Willough at Naples offers a detox program that keeps patients under 24/7 supervision by a team of licensed physicians. A knowledgeable team helps our clients relax, knowing experts are present to help them navigate any withdrawal symptoms.

Dual Diagnosis Treatment

After detox, the crux of dual diagnosis treatment can start, ensuring an individual gets the help they need for both their addiction to alcohol and depression. The Willough at Naples boasts an extensive dual diagnosis program for this very purpose.

One of the core components of dual diagnosis treatment is psychotherapy (or talk therapy). Several different types of talk therapy exist, and patients gain the most from participating in more than one. They teach vital life skills and healthy coping mechanisms with which to replace alcohol.

It’s important to note, however, that psychotherapy is not the only form of treatment used. A more extensive list of treatment options for alcohol and depression would include:

Psychiatric evaluation
Individual therapy (i.e. cognitive behavioral therapy)
Group therapy
Family education
Recreational therapy
Medication education and management
Relapse prevention
Links to community-based resources (i.e. Alcoholics Anonymous)

The Willough at Naples utilizes all of these and more to provide a full continuum of care to patients with alcohol and depression-related problems. We understand the delicate balance between these issues and take great strides to guarantee both are handled with respect, compassion, and efficacy.

Contact The Willough at Naples Today

The Willough at Naples provides exceptional depression and alcohol treatment for struggling individuals. If you suspect you have both an addiction to alcohol and depression, reach out to us today. Our addiction and mental health experts will work with you to develop an individualized treatment plan that addresses your exact needs.

To learn more about our detox or dual diagnosis programs, call our admissions team at (239) 688-3063. You may also fill out a confidential contact form if you prefer. We will be happy to answer any questions and help guide you on the path to long-term recovery.

Our treatment center provides the right environment, tools, and dedicated staff you need to heal from mental illness and substance abuse. All you need to bring is a desire to get recover from alcohol and depression, and together we can make it a reality.

Alcohol and Depression: How Are They Connected?