Substance Abuse and Mental Health Facilities in Summerville, GA

In case you abusing substances like alcohol and drugs in Summerville, they can prove effective at managing - albeit in the short term - the symptoms of your mental health disorder. This form of self-medication, however, can be dangerous because it can lead to addiction.

The temporary relief that you derive from these substances could soon be overtaken by other negative physical and psychological effects. Eventually, you may even find that you have started struggling with more of the common mental health problems that are linked with drug and alcohol addiction.

Psychosis

Drug-induced psychosis will often occur when you are no longer able to tell the difference between reality and hallucinations. This means that you will not be in a position to be aware of the fact that your hallucinations are not real. As a result, you will experience a break from reality.

This could occur as a result of abusing hallucinogens like psychotropic mushrooms and LSD. However, it is also possible to develop psychosis due to abusing cannabis - or marijuana. This is particularly true if you take too much of these drugs.

Schizophrenia

Although substance abuse and addiction cannot lead to the development of schizophrenia, it can act as one of the environmental triggers that causes you to display symptoms that are similar to those caused by this mental health disorder.

If you have genetic risk factors for schizophrenia and you abuse drugs or alcohol, there is a heightened risk that you might develop schizophrenia after using these substances over the long term. Further, using drugs like amphetamines, cocaine, and marijuana could exacerbate schizophrenic symptoms that already exist, or worsen their severity.

A dual diagnosis treatment program can help you understand the reasons behind your substance abuse and addiction as well as how this disorder is affected and continues to affect the other co-occurring behavioral and mental health disorders that you have also been diagnosed with.

This type of treatment would most likely be highly specialized and integrated. This is because it has to manage all the disorders that you have been struggling with at the same time - or simultaneously. It is recommended that you go through dual diagnosis treatment if you have been living with both addiction as well as any other co-occurring medical or mental health disorders.