Substance Abuse and Mental Health Facilities in Mattapan, MA

If you live in Mattapan 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.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Obsessive compulsive disorder will cause you to suffer intense emotional and mental pain. As a result, this could cause you to turn to alcohol and drugs in a bid to self-medicate for the symptoms caused by this mental illness.

This is because it can be difficult to cope with the obsessions that often accompany OCD. However, self-medication will only provide you with relief in the short term. Over the long term, this could lead to repeated substance abuse whenever you experience unwanted urges and thoughts. With enough abuse and time, you will eventually find yourself living with a co-occurring substance use disorder over and above your obsessive compulsive disorder.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

In case you have been diagnosed with or have been living with post-traumatic stress disorder, this condition would change the chemical structure in the same way that substance abuse would. In many cases, these disorders might occur at the same time and continue feeding off each other unless you seek treatment.

This is because the same trauma that caused you to develop post-traumatic stress disorder could also trigger the development of a co-occurring substance use disorder or addiction. You can only overcome these disorders through a dual diagnosis treatment and rehabilitation program.

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.