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Substance Abuse Mental Health Professionals

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Substance abuse is a scary thing for many people. Those who use substances to help themselves feel better will often be running from their problems or not know how to deal with them. These people will usually come to be addicted over time and they will need help to overcome their addictions.

When they do go and try to get help, they may realize that they have more than just an addiction. This means that the person may find that in addition to an addiction he may also have a mental health problem. Mental illnesses are equally as important to address as the addictions themselves. Those professionals who try to treat only the addiction will be missing much of the problem that is needing to be fully addressed.

The mental illness will need treatment as well. This is why many people are choosing to go and get help from substance abuse mental health professionals. Substance abuse mental health professionals may be the only ones who can really provide the lasting help that is needed. This is because the relationship between mental health problems and addictions can be hard to understand. Many mental health professionals do not really understand addiction. Many addiction counselors do not understand mental illnesses. There are some substance abuse mental health professionals, however, that actually does understand both.

The substance abuse mental health professionals will understand what dual diagnosis is. A dual diagnosis is the presence of both a mental illness as well as an addiction in one person. The addiction could be to a variety of different substances and could include those items which are both legal as well as illegal.

A dual diagnosis may exist for someone who is addicted to cocaine, heroin, meth, or even some of the strong types of pain killers. Just as there are various substances involved with dual diagnosis among various people, there are also many mental illnesses that can be present from one person to the next.

Depression, schizophrenia, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and many other mental disorders could be preventing the person from experiencing success in life. That person may even be taking the substances, in part, because of the difficulties that he is experiencing due to the mental illness. In many cases, the substances that he is addicted to can actually make the mental disorders much worse. The relationship between mental illness and addiction can work on the person until he is unable to function normally in society at all.

This is when the substance abuse mental health professionals will need to be contacted. Sometimes it is the family members who will make the initial call. There is something very good about the addicted individual making the call, however. When he makes the call, this is a sign that he really does want to get better. A person who has these desires will typically have much better outcomes during the course of recovery. It will be possible to get help from the substance abuse mental health professionals in either an inpatient or an outpatient setting.

In some cases, the outpatient setting will be acceptable if the situation is not too bad and the person is dealing with life. This is only true, however, if the person providing the treatment is adept with treating dual diagnosis cases. In other situations, however, an inpatient facility may be the only thing that will really work. The professionals will be able to make recommendations as to which placement will be recommended. Choosing to get better really will be a possibility, but it will take work and it will require the help of the substance abuse mental health professionals.