Dual diagnosis is a term that has gained a significant amount of popularity over the last few years. As medical and social sciences continue to expand their knowledge about addiction and alcoholism, we have learned that in many cases there are underlying causes that lead to substance abuse. Over the years that we have been helping our patients get better from substance use disorders, we have developed an intensive screening protocol that allows us to identify people at risk for dual diagnosis and treat them effectively.
If you suffer from concomitant mental health problems in addition to alcohol and or drug addiction, we can help you. You will receive a safe and comfortable detox when you come to us. We offer state of the art genetic testing to help determine what medications are right for you. We will perform detailed diagnostics and assessments about your current mental health challenges and together, we will develop a plan that is right for you and your recovery.
There are several types of dual diagnosis clients that we see at LifeSync Malibu. The following outline represents a few of the more common illnesses we see.
Depression
Many of our clients have serious or major depression when they present to our facility. If you are dually diagnosed, you already know that cleaning up and getting sober doesn’t necessarily lift the depression. It is a problem that continues despite prolonged periods of sobriety (e.g. months or years) and is especially frustrating for people who are actively working on improving their lives. Many of our clients feel hopeless and like failures because, despite living clean and sober, they just can’t shake the blues. If this sounds like you, you may benefit from our dual diagnosis program.
Anxiety Disorders
This is another very common diagnosis that we see in treatment. Anxiety takes on many different expressions in people. Some examples are a generalized sense of anxiety or panic attacks – where you feel like you’re going to die. Other people have situational anxiety (e.g. when confronting someone about something or talking to their boss, or public speaking) and still others have very specific fears about their environment (e.g. fear of heights, elevators, snakes, etc…). There are number of different ways in which anxiety disorders present. We have a variety of different therapeutic options for effectively treating all the various forms of anxiety and many treatments don’t require you to take any medication!
Bipolar Disorder
This is a hot topic in treatment and for a while it seemed like “everyone” was being diagnosed with this problem. It is true that bipolar disorder is more common with people who abuse alcohol or drugs, but only a careful history and evaluation can identify accurately whether you have this type of mood disorder. There are two major types of bipolar disorder: Type 1 and Type 2. Patients with Type 1 have a much more severe version of this illness and are often gravely handicapped and have been in multiple psychiatric facilities. Type 2 is a less debilitating form of the illness but no less painful. We see a lot of clients who come in who are amazingly brilliant in their field of expertise. We see a lot of people who have run fortune 500 companies or who are accomplished musicians or actors. With the correct medications and therapies, you can channel your creative energy in constructive ways and put your alcohol and/or drug problem behind you!
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
This diagnosis is unfortunately extremely common in the people we treat. Do you have repeated and unwanted painful memories of abuse that come up over and over again? Do you get feelings of doom or dread whenever you are in certain life-situations that trigger unpleasant memories? Do you see flashbacks in graphic detail of horrible things you have seen or experienced? You may have PTSD. Severe emotional damage occurs when people are abused. Sometimes people will have repetitive nightmares or night terrors. Trauma work is a very specialized field and it is critical for your recovery that you seek out a treatment program like LifeSync to help you through these issues. We have a number of treatment modalities to help you!
There are many other types of mental health problems that people suffer from including obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), attention deficit disorder with or without hyperactivity (ADD or ADHD) and a number of different personality disorders such as borderline personality disorder (BPD).
In all these different scenarios, we have the knowledge and experience to help you or your loved one get better and take hold of your life again. We provide in-depth analyses and evaluations that are designed to correctly diagnose the particular mental health problem you are suffering from. Many of our patients come to us after trying and failing at multiple therapeutic treatments. What we have found is that a significant number of these clients have either been misdiagnosed or underdiagnosed. A smaller number of our clients come in overmedicated.
Once we get to know you, we will give you a medical treatment plan with the correct medications that will help you get better and will help stabilize your mood so you can focus in on treating your addiction. We can help you recover!
