Alcohol Abuse Advice

Care to Know if You Have Dual Diagnosis?

Dual diagnosis is sometimes called co-morbidity, concurrent disorders, co-occurring illness, co-occurring disorder, double trouble, and dual disorder. Even the professional field of literature is full of confusion as to what term should be used to describe dual diagnosis.

A person should be diagnosed as having dual diagnosis if one has a psychosocial issue and at the same time experiencing multiple illnesses of which it can be more than two. Example is a person which has both a psychiatric diagnosis and a substance abuse diagnosis from either drug or alcohol or perhaps both.

This problem affects an individual’s physical, psychological, social and spiritual functions and therefore unable to relate to themselves and to others. Actually, each of the illnesses interacts with each other causing more complications than it already is. Sometimes, the symptoms overlap from each other creating a mask and difficulty for its diagnosis and treatment.

Usually, a person does not acknowledge that he or she has a co-occurring disorder and may sincerely try to be treated from just one illness. Normally the psychosocial disorder is unacceptable to many. What happens then is that though a patient becomes successful in the drug or alcohol abuse, the psychological illness can take over making the need to go back to the use of either drug or alcohol and the cycle continues. In time, failure and alienation results in this great tragedy that can lower a person’s self-esteem.

Numerous forms of psychiatric illnesses and different problems in alcohol or drug abuse make it difficult to categorize dual diagnosis. However, there are general patterns that have been seen among patients namely: psychiatric symptoms may be covered up or masked by alcohol or drug use, alcohol or drug use or the withdrawal from alcohol or other drugs can mimic or give the appearance of some psychiatric illness, untreated chemical dependency can contribute to a reoccurrence of psychiatric symptoms, and untreated psychiatric illness can contribute to an alcohol or drug relapse.

Other problems and consequences that are associated with dual disorder include: family problems or problems in intimate relationships, isolation and social withdrawal, financial problems,  employment or school problems, high risk behavior while driving, multiple admission for chemical dependency services due to relapse,  multiple admissions for psychiatric care, increased emergency room admissions, increased need for health care services, legal problems, and possible incarceration and homelessness.

Dual diagnosis is more common than one can imagine. According to a report published by the Journal of the American Medical Association, thirty-seven percent of alcohol abusers and fifty-three percent of drug abusers also have at least one serious mental illness. Of all people diagnosed as mentally ill, 29 percent abuse either alcohol or drugs.

An individual is in dual recovery when they are actively following a program that focuses on their recovery needs for both their chemical dependency and their psychiatric illness.

Related Alcoholism And Drug Abuse Articles