Substance Abuse and Mental Health Facilities in Rayne, LA

If you live in Rayne 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.

Psychosis

Although taking drugs might not suddenly trigger the development of psychosis unless it existed before, having this type of mental illness could cause you to start abusing drugs and drinking alcohol excessively. If you are prone to this condition, you might also become overly intoxicated if you abuse these substances.

That said, having psychosis could cause you to suffer from addiction. This is because you may turn to drugs and alcohol to self-medicate the symptoms of this mental health disorder. Over time, however, this could lead to addiction.

Schizophrenia

Like substance abuse and addiction, schizophrenia tends to be linked to genetics. In fact, about 10 percent of the people who have a first degree family member living with schizophrenia also struggle with this condition.

This is because there are certain genes that you might inherit from your parents that could increase your risk of developing this mental health disorder. Further, there are some rare genetic mutations that could disrupt the development of the brain and cause you to live with schizophrenia.

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.