With the dazzling array of types and sizes of alcohol and drug rehabs available to choose from another issue is available to deal with. That’s if all the other issues about choice haven’t totally confused or bored you yet. This involves some of the co-issues involving drug addiction. The things I’m considering are issues like bipolar, depression, mental illness, anorexia, sexual orientation and more. Again there are rehabs, both drug and alcohol that specialize to a certain extent in a in one or two combinations of the above issues.

The rational is simple, but again the choices may not be. First of all, is the chicken or the egg issue, with a lot of the above topics. Take depression for example. Does drug and alcohol addiction cause depression, or does depression predispose you to addicition? Or do they just occur similtaneously in some people. The problem is that someone who is extremely depressed is going to experience more difficulty acheiving success in a drug rehab program.

So again, do you look for the perfect facility that has the right fit for you particular set of problems? Again I’ll answer with a solid maybe. Like I have mentioned before most things in life involve a trade-off. Here, sometimes in the hunt for dealing with the psychological issue and treating it, the worry is does this then become an excuse for the drug and alcohol abuse. In other words, if you believe that one of the core issues of your addiciton involves your bipolar disorder, then it comes quite natural to say, “I can’t stop because my biploar is out of control.”

Plus if you start juggling to many issues at once, can you ever really deal well with any of them? I think a simpler and maybe safer approach is to deal with them one at a time. If you have a serious addiction and are considering rehab, and you also have one of these other issues at play, see a good therapist and simply get the other issue resonably stable so you can attend a rehab and sole focus on your addicition treatment. In other words if you are clinically depressed get on a good anti-depressant and stay on it through out your time in rehab. Similarily with some of the other issues. Don’t try to solve them at the same time. Just try to get them stable enough that you are safe enough and grounded enough to benefit and understand your addicition treatment.

Then once you are through your rehab you can tackle the next issue, at least knowing any depression that remains is no longer associated with your drug abuse. You will still be biploar when you leave a rehab, but you may find you require less medication than before, and your swings may not be as extreme when you are sober. The remaining point I would like to make that whatever path or type of addicition treatment you choose, if your depression or mental issues are getting worse, tell a counselor IMMEDIATELY. If you are starting to feel suicidal, or having more dificulty controling your anger or feelings of violence, SPEAK UP. Staying silent is dangerous to you and those around you.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 11th, 2006 at 10:34 am and is filed under Drug Rehab. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.