Substance Abuse and Mental Health Facilities in Sonora, CA

If you live in Sonora 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

If you have been living with post-traumatic stress disorder, it could be because of the traumatic events that you witnessed and experienced in the past. This condition might arise due to military combat, serious injuries and accidents, natural disasters, acts of terrorism, physical or sexual assault, and the death of loved ones.

It can be difficult to manage this condition. For instance, you might turn to alcohol and drugs to deal with the symptoms of your post-traumatic stress disorder. However, this would lead to more problems - including but not limited to the development of another co-occurring substance use disorder.

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.

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.