Once called manic depression, bipolar disorder causes abruptly changing mood swings, behaviors, and energy levels. This disorder creates many problems on its own. However, when paired with addiction to drugs or alcohol, the symptoms will only grow worse. With addiction, the two conditions fuel each other. This requires bipolar disorder treatment during addiction rehab to be essential for recovery.
About Bipolar Disorder and Addiction
Bipolar disorder causes significant problems if left untreated. The same holds true for addiction. Each of the conditions poses a risk to your physical and emotional well-being. Without bipolar disorder treatment, you suffer problems with your relationships, finances, physical health, and life, in general.
People with bipolar disorder more frequently commit suicide than those without the condition. With addiction, this risk for death only increases. The two circumstances combine toward greater chance of deadly overdose.
Unfortunately, addiction commonly occurs with bipolar disorder and vice versa. According to the American Journal of Managed Care:
- 56% of people with bipolar disorder also suffer drug or alcohol addiction
- 46% of those with bipolar disorder drink too much alcohol
- 41% of those with bipolar disorder abuse drugs.
Having both bipolar disorder and addiction means you have a dual diagnosis disorder. These co-occurring conditions only improve when both gain treatment at once. This makes the need for bipolar disorder treatment in rehab essential. Of course, having co-occurring disorders makes treatment harder, but overcoming the conditions means you gain a much better, more productive and fulfilling life.
Moods of Bipolar Disorder
If you suffer bipolar disorder, your bouts of sadness, anger, happiness, and despair swing widely. Your life becomes much like riding a roller coaster of moods. Bipolar condition moods include mania, hypomania, depression, and mixed episodes.
- Mania- Incredible positivity and profound negativity with feelings of being somewhat invincible in life. You talk rapidly, get little sleep, and make bad decisions. You suffer some delusions and hallucinations.
- Hypomania- Less intense symptoms of mania. This means you handle daily living with better control than someone in mania. Moods of happiness, energy, and irritability swing widely in hypomania. In this mood, you feel more powerful, capable, and productive. You sleep less and take on risks like substance abuse.
- Depression- Includes despair, sadness, and emotional instability. This dark period lasts for days or weeks, according to your condition. Depression sometimes leads to self-injury or suicide, particularly when coupled with substance abuse.
- Mixed episodes- This combines feature of mania and depression. Many people turn to substance abuse in mixed episodes, in efforts to feel stable. But sadly, the temporary fix only makes things much worse over time.
Bipolar Disorder Treatment in Rehab
Bipolar disorder combined with addiction makes treatment challenging. Your bipolar-related mood changes and emotional instability cause many struggles. But rehab programs designed for people needing bipolar disorder treatment provide for your specific needs. The right treatment gives you a real chance for lasting recovery.
In the past, people with addiction gained help for their drug or alcohol dependence, but not mental health issues. This meant recovery only lasted a short period, if they finished rehab at all. When they returned home, their untreated mental illness took them right into relapse.
Sometimes people with mental health problems in addiction gained treatment in a psychiatric hospital. But this didn’t help the addiction. For many people, the same cycle of substance abuse picked up where it left off, after leaving the hospital.
Addiction treatment and mental health professionals today understand the importance of treating bipolar disorder and addiction at the same time. They know the cycle these two create, fueling both conditions. This treatment includes many different methods, including:
- Individual counseling about addiction
- Psychotherapy and behavioral therapy
- Group therapy
- Support groups
- Family therapy
- Holistic therapies
All of these therapies take place in one facility. Dual diagnosis rehab provides the help you need for a stable, healthy and sober life.
Addiction recovery services at Steps to Recovery in Levittown, PA provide dual diagnosis and addiction treatment. This treatment includes:
- 12-step based foundation
- Intensive outpatient program
- Outpatient program
- Partial hospitalization treatment
- Male, female and LGBTQ-friendly environment
- Individual, group and family therapies
- Dual diagnosis treatment
If you or someone you love suffers from addiction with mental illness, Steps to Recovery provides the help you need. Call Steps to Recovery now at 267.719.8528 for more information about available bipolar disorder treatment.
