Substance Abuse and Mental Health Facilities in St. Albans Bay, VT

Both substance abuse and mental illness tend to cause each other. For instance, if you live in St. Albans Bay and you start using drugs or drinking alcohol excessively, there is a high risk that you might start displaying the signs and symptoms of a mental illness.

On the other hand, if you have been living with a mental health disorder, you might start abusing these substances to deal with the signs and symptoms of your disorder. This could later give rise to the development of a substance use disorder, or an addiction.

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.

Although dual diagnosis treatment takes many different forms, you will mostly find that it is offered on an inpatient basis. This means that you will have to live in the recovery facility for a period of time - which could be anywhere between 30 and 90 days - or even longer in some instances.

The reason why you might benefit from inpatient treatment is because you will require a wide variety of round the clock rehabilitation services to manage both your substance abuse and addiction as well as any other co-occurring medical and mental health disorders that you have also been struggling with.