Drug Addiction Treatment and Bipolar Disorder
Drug Addiction Treatment and Bipolar Disorder
For two decades, we have been treating drug treatment program participants with drug or alcohol addiction and bipolar disorder (sometimes referred to as bi-polar disorder or even manic depression). Bipolar disorder affects approximately 1% of the adult population and manifests itself with mood swings, often rapid and severe. It is an affective disorder, classified similarly to clinical depression. As an affective disorder, it carries the capability to emotionally cripple an individual. By itself, bipolar disorder is quite treatable with medication and therapy. When coupled with drug or alcohol addiction; however, it complicates the drug addiction treatment process and demands a knowledgeable and experienced drug treatment program such as Lakeview Health Systems.
Aside from getting an emotionally crippled addict or alcoholic into drug addiction treatment, the primary difficulty in treating addicts and alcoholics with bipolar disorder is determining which disorder is the underlying condition. Did the individual have bipolar disorder first and then start using, or did they develop bipolar disorder as a result of their substance abuse? In many cases, it is the latter and simply abstaining from drug use or alcohol consumption greatly reduces or even eliminates the symptoms and behaviors associated with bipolar disorder. Whatever the cause, it is not a good idea to self-medicate with drugs or alcohol, as flooding the brain with substances will never lead to a desired outcome.
Lakeview’s drug addiction treatment approach heeds this lesson and treats the drug and/or alcohol use in a primary fashion. For those individuals who do not experience relief from bipolar symptoms with continued sobriety, we are able to treat with therapy or medication (where appropriate). In addition to sobriety, one of our goals is for each participant to “own” their bipolar disorder recovery through hope, personal responsibility and self-care. When an individual completes the drug or alcohol treatment program, they will be able to live a life free of drugs or alcohol and the majority of bipolar disorder symptoms.
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