How Mental Health Disorders and Addiction are Connected

Sarita Basnet
Aug 26, 2017 · 2 min read
Mental Disorder

Do you hear the terms “dual diagnose” and “co-occurring” disorder. These disorders are always discussed by addiction professionals in order to know the connection between mental illness and substance abuse.

But what do these terms mean?

Dual diagnose is also known as co-occurring disorder. It refers to those individuals who are suffering both mental illness and drug or alcohol use.

Which Comes First: A Mental Health Problem Or Addiction?

If we see then we get to know that both are different. The mental disorder depends upon the risk factors for the use of drugs which then lead to addiction whereas; drug use can cause the development of mental health disorder.

Difficulty In Identifying The Root Problem

As compare to drug or alcohol addiction, mental disorder is difficult to diagnose because it is a psychological issue that sometimes arise due to misattributed to the person’s drug use.

Mental disorder problem can hide due to the issues created with substance abuse and it becomes difficult to find out the actual disorder. For example, the excessive use of alcohol for longer time can cause Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome. It is a brain disorder and the symptoms of this order include:

· hallucinations

· loss of muscle coordination

· confusion and loss of mental activity

· loss of memory and more

In order to get better understandings between addiction and mental illness problems, the professionals need to examine the reason behind these mental and brain disorders.

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I am a marketing manager in a private firm. I have done MBA from Harvard University. My hobbies are swimming and watching talk shows.

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