Substance Abuse and Mental Health Facilities in Dundalk, MD

Both substance abuse and mental illness tend to cause each other. For instance, if you live in Dundalk and you start using drugs or drinking alcohol excessively, there is a high risk that you might start displaying the signs and symptoms of a mental illness.

On the other hand, if you have been living with a mental health disorder, you might start abusing these substances to deal with the signs and symptoms of your disorder. This could later give rise to the development of a substance use disorder, or an addiction.

Borderline Personality Disorder

The signs and symptoms of substance use disorders and borderline personality disorder are similar. Both of these conditions, for instance, are characterized by self-destructive behaviors, extreme mood swings, unstable careers and relationships, and deceitful actions.

For this reason, it can be difficult even for experts to diagnose these conditions separately. However, if you enroll in a dual diagnosis treatment center, you might be able to get the right diagnosis before you start working on managing both conditions concurrently so that they do not exacerbate each other. Over time, this could enable you to overcome both your substance abuse and addiction as well as the borderline personality disorder that you were diagnosed with.

Depression

If you have been living with depression and you resort to drugs and alcohol to self-medicate the symptoms of this condition, you might increase your risk of suffering from a substance use disorder.

In case you develop this disorder over and above your mental illness, you could be said to have a co-occurring disorder or a dual diagnosis. As a result, you will need specialized treatment to manage all of these disorders to ensure that they do not affect your recovery from the other. This type of treatment is also known as a dual diagnosis addiction and mental health disorder treatment and rehabilitation program.

Although dual diagnosis treatment takes many different forms, you will mostly find that it is offered on an inpatient basis. This means that you will have to live in the recovery facility for a period of time - which could be anywhere between 30 and 90 days - or even longer in some instances.

The reason why you might benefit from inpatient treatment is because you will require a wide variety of round the clock rehabilitation services to manage both your substance abuse and addiction as well as any other co-occurring medical and mental health disorders that you have also been struggling with.