Substance Abuse and Mental Health Facilities in Luling, LA

If you live in Luling and you start abusing drugs and alcohol, there is a high risk that you might develop a co-occurring mental health disorder. On the other hand, if you have an undiagnosed mental illness, there is a likelihood that you might start abusing these substances to self-medicate the symptoms of your mental illness.

Research studies show that substance abuse and mental health disorders tend to have some underlying causes in common. These might include changes in the composition of the brain, early exposure to traumatic and stressful events, and genetic vulnerabilities.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

The symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder tend to change over time. Whereas some of these symptoms will appear about 3 months after the traumatic episode you suffered, others will take years before they develop.

The important thing to keep in mind is that the condition will impact the regions of the brain that are associated with emotions and memory. If you have a healthy brain, it will be able to differentiate between present and past experiences. However, PTSD can interfere with this natural process. This is why it is important to seek professional assessment and treatment before turning to drugs and alcohol to self-medicate this condition.

Psychosis

It is possible to develop psychosis as a result of abusing alcohol. however, this will typically happen after day - or even weeks - of intense alcohol abuse. If you have been struggling with a chronic alcohol use problem that has been going on for years, you might also be vulnerable to the hallucinations and intense paranoia that are typical hallmarks of psychosis.

This is because alcohol produces damaging effects on the brain. This could happen as a result of the lack of the vitamin B complex thiamine, which could cause you to develop Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome.

It is recommended that you seek dual diagnosis treatment to manage all of the disorders that you have been struggling with simultaneously so that one does not cause the other to recur in the future.

This is especially true if you have been diagnosed with both substances abuse as well as another co-occurring mental health or medical disorders. Although these disorders tend to occur at the same time in many cases, it is possible to overcome them. To be able to do so, you will have to go through a highly integrated dual diagnosis treatment program.