Substance Abuse and Mental Health Facilities in Santa Monica, CA

Santa Monica is like any other location in the United States in the sense that there are many people here who abuse drugs and alcohol. among these people, there are some who also struggle with mental health problems.

In particular, some of the residents of Santa Monica have been diagnosed with these mental health disorders because they abuse drugs that cause them to struggle with the signs and symptoms of a mental illness. To recover, they often need expert dual diagnosis treatment to manage both their drug and alcohol addiction as well as the mental health disorders that they have also been diagnosed with.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

If you went through a traumatic experience, your brain would start producing endorphins in lower quantities. These chemicals are responsible for helping you to feel comfortable and happy.

As a result, you might find yourself turning to mood-enhancing drugs and alcohol to ensure that your brain produces these endorphins in higher levels. Over time, however, you will start relying on these substances to deal with the additional feelings of irritability, anxiety, and depression arising from your post-traumatic stress disorder. This is how you will soon find that you are also living with addiction over and above the PTSD condition.

Psychosis

The likelihood of developing the symptoms of psychosis while taking non-prescription intoxicating substances will largely vary from one drug to the next. For instance, if you abuse cocaine in excess - by using too much at the same time - there is a high likelihood that you will experience psychosis in a matter of minutes. When this condition develops from amphetamine or cocaine abuse, it will typically lead to persecutory delusions.

You might also experience tactile, auditory, and visual hallucinations as a result of abusing hallucinogens. However, these experiences are not the same as a diagnosis of psychosis. Even so, taking too much of these drugs or suffering an adverse reaction from using them could also cause you to develop paranoia and delusions.

Mental health and substance abuse treatment - also known as dual diagnosis addiction and mental health treatment - is recommended if you have been struggling with both drug and alcohol use as well as a co-occurring mental illness.

This form of integrated treatment uses a systems approach that will review your psychological and psychiatric history and your abuse of drugs and alcohol. It will also provide you with various treatment and rehabilitation services - including assessment and evaluation, medically supervised detoxification, therapy and counseling, and aftercare planning and programming - to guide you on the road to recovery.

It is recommended that you seek dual diagnosis treatment in Santa Monica 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.