drug abuse Tag

dual diagnosis treatment for mental health and addiction
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Dual Diagnosis vs Multidimensionality

Some time ago, I had the opportunity to work in the Skid Row area of downtown Los Angeles. In those days (the early ’90s) the residents of the area were divided between need “mental health services” or those needing “addiction services.”  This distinction was usually the result of some odd government funding rules or just the general ignorance of the time. It must have been extremely frustrating for clients to walk back and forth between programs as both programs had strict entrance criteria. Invariably, the client would give up and end up using and just sleeping on the streets. 

 

The Dual Diagnosis revolution came about as both traditional mental health, and substance abuse programs began to realize that clients didn’t fit into these neat boxes. In my mind, this was obvious. Any Introduction to Psychology course will instruct you on understanding the complexity of human behavior. More often than not, people need help in a variety of areas. 

 

Mental health disorders and substance abuse issues are only a small part of the recovery plan Share on X

 

Services such as financial and legal planning, helping the family, and assisting clients in finding good-paying jobs and housing. More importantly, the staff needed to have a greater level of compassion and understanding as clients ranged in age, culture, and background. 

 

More recently, the Diagnostic Manual of Mental Disorders-V (DSM-V) (the psychiatric diagnostic manual) instituted new guidelines for diagnosis along a dynamic spectrum of issues (i.e., health, financial, relationship and emotional issues). This strategy of diagnosis avoided the stale one-word diagnosis (e.g. alcohol abuse) and painted instead of a richer and more clinically useful multidimensional picture.

 

The American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM, 2013) has developed a multidimensional assessment model that provides both clients and staff a client-friendly treatment model. The assessment model includes everything from treating withdrawal symptoms to assess the client’s risks of relapse. The ASAM Placement has also allowed a common means of communication between clinicians, recovery professionals, and third-party payors.

 

Unfortunately, rather than focus on treatment efficacy, many programs seem to offer a menu of attractive services, some of which have shown little value in establishing and maintaining the client’s sobriety. Share on X

 

However, most programs use traditional treatment models. Unfortunately, most of these models of treatment reflect the treatment the staff received in their respective recovery programs.  Rather than focus on treatment efficacy, many programs seem to offer a menu of attractive services, some of which have shown little value in establishing and maintaining the client’s sobriety. It’s almost impossible to do a Google search on substance abuse issues without going through countless slick webpages offering expertise and a pleasant rehabilitation process. 

 

The relatively recent focus on Dual Diagnosis has opened the recovery community to an earnest attempt to provide a more simplistic but helpful understanding of clients who suffer from substance abuse and mental health issues. Although both issues are indeed mental disorders, the development of the Dual Diagnosis model has started a much-needed paradigm shift for both clients and treatment professionals. Although the multidimensional approach is growing in the recovery field, it is still challenging to have the staff and client to see just how complicated this perspective is.  Typically, a simple diagnosis like “he’s just an alcoholic” or “he’s a recently divorced drug addict” is used to describe a rather complex individual in a complicated situation. 

 

Along with this development, some insurance companies have become more “savvy” in how they evaluate treatment progress and thus pay for treatment. Some have demanded that the client be discharged to a lower level of care or burdening the client and the family with the additional costs of treatment. I have seen clients lose their treatment benefits and sadly return home only to repeat the cycle of addiction. Along with more effective treatment models, funding agencies need to support our client’s in their recovery as a medical necessity and not just auxiliary service. 

 

In my own recovery, the most helpful experiences were those in which compassionate staff helped me develop a sense of hope and regain a more balanced perspective on life in general. I learned to develop a greater acceptance of my higher power and trust in myself and my support system. These and other dynamics such as compassion, humor and the ability to have fun without drugs, remain outside traditional addiction medicine, but in many ways are just as important (or more). 

 

My own personal experiences at Recover Integrity have shown just how a program can be both a treatment program, providing complex dual diagnosis treatment, and a place of healing and renewal of hope Share on X

 

My own personal experiences at  Recover Integrity have shown just how a program can be both a treatment program, providing complex dual diagnosis treatment,  and a place of healing and renewal of hope. This humanistic perspective perfectly emboldens my own work as a clinician and as an administrator of the program. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

If you think a loved one would benefit from a dual-diagnosis treatment plan, please reach out to us for a free 15-min consultation. We are here for you.

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    Opening Up the Locked Heart of an Addict

     

    What to expect in this episode

    1. The Paradox of Addiction
    2. Thread Between Unhappiness & Drug Abuse
    3. Help People Recover by Helping them Find Happiness
    4. The Day Yeshaia’s Heart Began to Open
    5. Cutting Through the Fear, Hopelessness
    6. Create Connection, Hope, & Opening the Heart

     

    Addiction is Paradoxical

     

    So, one of the things about addiction is, it’s paradoxical.  On the one hand, it’s very complicated, biological psychological phenomenon, on the other hand there are parts of it that are very simple, like, you’re never going to find a happy person who’s using tons of drugs.

     

    you’re never going to find a happy person who’s using tons of drugs

     

    We know there’s a relationship between being unhappy or demoralized or hopeless and the state of addiction, right.  So, we can gather from that, I gather from that, that one of the ways that we help people recover, is to help them find happiness or as I often talk about it, you know, opening the heart, because many people who are coming into addiction are really numb, they’ve really numbed out a lot of their feelings.

     

    I know that because I was that, you know, since I was maybe 12 or 13 years old, I really stopped having the wide range of feelings that we have as human beings.  I want to share a story about one of the moments that my heart opened up. It’s a true story.

     

    I have a daughter named Eden and she’s short, you know, short for her age.  My wife is also you know, relatively short. And I love basketball and so, you know, I want her to try the sport.  She was playing on a basketball team and the entire season I’m going to every game and she’s not making a single shot and she’s watching other people score and I’m you know, just kind of holding it in and feeling bad for her, that you know, she’s not succeeding in the way that she wants.

     

    And the last game, there were all these parents around the basketball court and the ref, you know, it’s like five-year-old’s, so the ref is like holding people back, so the kids that never made a shot get a chance to make a shot.  And the ref is holding people back and my little five-year old daughter takes this basketball and she throws it up, you know, potty-shot style, and it pops in the hoop.

     

    In that moment, like the moment that you heard the pop from the net, you know, the ball, my heart went, “Pop” and it was like it had been closed for years.  You know, even in sobriety. And I was like “Oh, my God what happened?” And I would just remember, I was like in this circle and I turned around and I put my hands over my face, because I was so surprised by what it felt like to feel love and feel your heart, and I began to cry, you know.

     

    And I didn’t know what to do, other that to hide it, because I had never felt it before.  And so, you know, I relate that to sobriety and recovery, that we’ve got to be able to cut through a lot of our nomenclature, a lot of our fears, a lot of our hopelessness and we’ve got to be able to cut through a lot of that complexity and we’ve got have a lot of heart in the work.

     

    You know, and really recognize what we’re doing.  I’m not saying there aren’t other factors, there are tons of other factors, but somewhere in the core, it’s about connection, it’s about hope, it’s about opening each other’s heart, it’s about seeing each other, seeing myself and you, and you seeing yourself in me, and cultivating those moments.

     

    Because when you have those moments, you don’t go back.  I’m not going to climb back into the shadows and the darkness.  I know that there’s love. I know that there’s light. I know that there’s care out there.

     

     

    Schedule a 30-min consultation with Yeshaia 

     

    Schedule Free ConsultationSchedule Free Consultation

     

    We are Rooted in the Foundation of the  12-Steps and Believe in Long-Term Care

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