The relationship between addiction and other mental health disorders is a complex one, with substance abuse potentially either driving, or being driven by (or even, in particular complicated cases, both) other disorders: the emergence of disorders such as depression, psychosis and many others can lead to an individual’s feeling isolated and profoundly unhappy, and to their seeking escape in drugs, while substance abuse itself and, in particular, the damage addiction can do to an individual’s life prospects, can contribute to the emergence of an array of troubling and potentially extremely destructive mental health conditions.
Although medical professionals are now typically extremely capable of identifying – and treating – cases of dual diagnosis, it remains a huge problem:
approximately 50% of individuals with serious mental disorders also suffer from substance abuse disorders;
approximately one third of alcoholics, and over half of drug users, also suffer from at least one identifiable mental illness.
The treatment of one element of a dual diagnosis to the exclusion of another typically results in the failure of that treatment, and potentially to the worsening of either or both conditions as the patient falls further into despair and addiction. Only treating both elements simultaneously as part of a holistic and bespoke treatment plan provides the greatest likelihood of optimal long-term recovery.