Attempting to reach sobriety while suffering from depression is extremely difficult. Drug and alcohol use severely affects the brain. Eventually, people with addiction struggle with co-occurring disorders. This is why it’s extremely important for you to ensure the rehab of your choice offers a depression treatment program as well as addiction rehabilitation.
Why Depression Treatment?
Depression can be extremely debilitating, and it’s also one of the leading causes of relapse. The good news about depression is that it won’t keep you down forever. Depression occurs when the brain experiences a neurochemical imbalance. In other words, different neurotransmitters responsible for happiness, motivation, and passion aren’t operating correctly. For example, the neurotransmitters that aren’t firing include:
- Serotonin
- Dopamine
- Endorphins
Your brain has a baseline for happiness, and when you begin abusing drugs or alcohol, this line lowers. This means that it’s much harder for you to be happy and enjoy life because substances change your brain chemistry. However, there are different ways a depression treatment program can help these neurotransmitters reproduce more efficiently. This is crucial because when you get sober, you’re no longer artificially creating dopamine through drug and alcohol use.
Depression Treatment for Early Sobriety
Some people neglect their mental health after getting clean and don’t understand why they still feel down. Dopamine is a natural chemical the brain creates. However, drugs and alcohol create artificial feelings of euphoria. After long-term abuse, the brain can no longer naturally create dopamine. Therefore, when you quit using drugs or alcohol, the brain needs time to create new neurotransmitters which create feelings of pleasure.
However, with the help of non-narcotic antidepressant medications, you’ll begin feeling better quicker. Typically, these medications fall under SSRIs. It’s important to understand that these medications aren’t an immediate happiness pill. What they do is help your brain reproduce neurotransmitters. The combination of therapeutic treatment and medication helps you learn how to create these neurotransmitters on your own to help you reach happiness sooner.
Depression Treatment Program with Steps to Recovery
The best addiction treatment centers provide psychotherapy. Some people experience depression in early recovery, but after time, it begins to go away. This is because the brain begins to heal itself. During your treatment stay, your therapist will continue to assess you to see how your depression is improving.
When it’s time to leave treatment, you’ll receive a discharge plan so you can continue following up with medical professionals. Some people find that after about six months to a year of sobriety, they no longer need their antidepressant medications. For others, however, clinical depression may have been biological, but there’s always the opportunity to live a better life.
Steps to Recovery is an addiction treatment facility in Levittown, PA, and we’re here to provide you with addiction treatment as well as depression therapy. We pride ourselves on assisting a diverse demographic at our comprehensive treatment center. We’re passionate about helping people find a better way of living, and we do this with the following programs:
Contact Steps to Recovery today at 267.719.8528 to begin working toward the light of recovery with our help.