Understanding Your Dual Diagnosis

Substance abuse, alcoholism or drug addiction are just as common as mental health issues such as depression, anxiety or bipolar disorder, and some people experience both at the same time.

When this happens, the term ‘co-occurring disorder’ or ‘dual diagnosis’ is often used to describe it, and the consequences of living with such a diagnosis can be tough for anyone. However, if you’re suffering from substance abuse and a mental health disorder and are struggling to cope, understanding your diagnosis better can help you regain some control over your life.

 

What happens in a dual diagnosis?

If you’ve been given a dual diagnosis by a health professional, this means that your mental health issue and your substance abuse will each have their own unique symptoms, and each will undoubtedly impede your everyday life on some level or another.

You may find that you struggle to keep up with your classes at school, are unable to maintain your workload in your job or find it hard to handle the stresses of life.

Unfortunately, if your mental health issue is not treated at all, or often enough, then most find that their substance abuse worsens and vice versa, and this can quickly begin to feel like a vicious cycle that you can see no end to. While you may feel isolated and alone, it may comfort you to know that co-occurring substance abuse and mental health issues are relatively common, and as a result, there is plenty of professional help available to you.

No one need suffer alone or in silence with a dual diagnosis, and while you may not believe it, you can find your way back to happiness and you will feel better one day.

Does the substance abuse come first, or vice versa?

Sometimes, alcohol and drugs are commonly used to balance the sufferer’s effects of a mental health illness, which can in turn lead to unwanted side effects and may even worsen the symptoms that they initially helped alleviate.

On the flip side, it is also widely acknowledged that the abuse of alcohol or drugs can increase the underlying risk of developing a mental health disorder. Research has shown that some who abuse marijuana, for example, increase their risk of psychosis, while abusers of opioid painkillers may risk developing depression at a later stage.

 

This might all sound scary, and if you think you may have a problem with your mental health and you’re abusing substances, or you’re newly diagnosed with a co-occurring disorder, it’s important to know that everyone can get help, most importantly you, and no therapist or other mental health professional will cast any judgement over you, no matter what your problem and what may have caused it.

So please don’t suffer in silence if you’re struggling with a dual diagnosis, seek help and learn how to reclaim your life.

Learn more at: https://heartcenteredcounselors.com

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You’ve Been Diagnosed With A Mental Illness…Now What??

If you’ve just been professionally diagnosed with a mental illness, you may not know quite what you’re supposed to do next. A wide range of emotions may be commonly felt at this point, and while some may feel relieved to have been diagnosed, others may feel angry, ashamed, embarrassed or just downright miserable.

That said, whatever your diagnosis, and however it has made you feel, it is not the end of the world and with good help and support, you can recover and lead a happy, fulfilled life. There are several things that you can do and/or be aware of after your diagnosis, that will aid you on your path to recovery, here are just a few:

 

Know that you are never alone:

One in every five Americans are affected by some form of mental illness, meaning that you are not alone, and there is also a wealth of help and guidance available for you all.

 

You are more than capable of achieving your goals:

It may not be easy or quick, but many more people nowadays are managing to cope with, or recover fully from, their mental illnesses, thanks to advances in counseling, medication, quality of care, and cognitive therapies now available to everyone.

 

Learn about your diagnosis and try to play an active role in your treatment:

Learn everything that you can about your condition, and make sure that you get the best help available to you for a swifter and more successful recovery. Talk to others who have been through – or who are going through – the same as you, and disclose as much as you can to your mental health professionals so that they are better equipped to give you the treatment that is right for you.

 

Find emotional support:

Coping with a diagnosis is tough enough, without having to go through it on your own. Wherever possible, try to confide in people that you trust, and you’ll find that a problem shared really is a problem halved. If you don’t feel confident talking to people that you know, then look for a support group in your area that might offer you the chance to talk openly to others in a similar position to you. You may also wish to schedule an appointment with a trained professional, who can help guide you through your diagnosis and talk you through your recovery options.

 

Be as honest as possible with your GP or therapist:

To get the best help, be completely honest, including being open with any mental health experts or GP’s that you are working with. Attend your appointments armed with a list of questions that you might have about your diagnosis and subsequent treatment.

No mental health diagnosis comes easily, no matter how much you prepare yourself for it, or how determined you are to make a full recovery. Be open with yourself and to those whom you trust, and while the road to recovery may have some potholes along the way, you will find happiness and fulfillment again.

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The Effects Of Stress Upon Our Sleep Patterns

Based upon the results of multiple sleep related surveys carried out in recent years, we’re not getting the amount of sleep that we ideally need. While some people can cope with less sleep than others, most are still not meeting the recommended requirements, and as a result, may struggle to function and remain as mentally and physically sound as possible.

The reasons behind this countrywide epidemic of sleeplessness can usually be attributed to several common factors, such as problems with relationships, difficulties at work, financial hardships and even traffic jams on our daily commute. Improving the quality of our sleep patterns is possible, but only when we tackle the many chronic stressors that are preventing us from getting the rest we so deeply need.

 

Stress and how learning to manage it can improve our sleep patterns:

Getting good, quality sleep may be more achievable if you try to implement some healthy stress management techniques before you climb into bed. The ways in which we can learn to cope with stress come in many forms, and some involve emotional engagement.

A recent study showed that those strategies aiming to minimize emotional avoidance and enhance emotional awareness, can greatly reduce the impact that stress can have on sleep.

On the other side of the coin, strategies that tend to increase avoidance, such as drinking alcohol or taking illegal substances to forget about the stress, usually lead to longer sleep delays and a lack of quality sleep.

 

What is emotional avoidance and how can we minimize it?

This type of avoidance can refer to any action we take that is designed to help us prevent feeling an uncomfortable emotion, whether it be through dissociation or using drugs or alcohol. Normally considered to be an unhelpful coping strategy, emotional avoidance may be effective in the short term, but will often go on to make those emotions become stronger and more difficult to avoid.

Some strategies that can help to minimize emotional avoidance include meditation and simple breathing exercises. These can reduce stress and bodily tension, and lower the levels of the stress hormone, which will aid sounder sleep.

When to seek professional help:

If self-help methods of lowering your stress levels don’t seem to be working and your sleep patterns haven’t improved, then it might be time to meet with a qualified counselor who can talk to you more about the way you’re feeling.

An experienced counselor will advise you on other strategies of stress management to help you sleep better, and will be a sounding board for any worries or fears that you might have surrounding your emotional responses to stressful situations.

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How To Help Your Angry Child

While anger can be a perfectly normal, useful and healthy emotion for children, it can also become a problem if it gets out of control and turns into aggression. If your children are experiencing a lot of angry emotions, there could be a multitude of reasons for this, and several different ways in which you can help them to tackle their anger in a healthy way.

 

Your child is angry, but why?

A child can display anger for a whole host of reasons, and some of them are listed below:

• Witnessing anger and arguing from family members or other adults that your child is close to
• Experiencing friendship problems at school
• Being bullied
• Struggling to cope with schoolwork
• Feeling stressed, afraid or anxious about something
• Coping with hormonal changes that occur throughout puberty

While it may be obvious that your child is feeling angry, the reasons behind the anger may not always be clear, particularly if they are not comfortable talking about it with you, or if they themselves are not clear about why they are feeling angry. If this is the case, then it’s important that you help your child to work out what might be causing their anger so that you can both move forward.

How to tackle your child’s anger together:

Helping your child to work through their anger is the best way of showing them that they are not the problem. If you’re helping younger children to cope with anger, then it’s easy to make it fun and creative. Try giving anger a name and asking your child to draw it as best they can. It could take the form of a volcano that will eventually explode, for example.

Remember that how you respond to anger can have a huge influence on how your child responds to anger, and when you tackle the problem together, it can be helpful to both of you.

Helping your child to spot the anger warning signs:

Being able to spot the warning signs of displays of anger early, can help your child to make positive decisions about how they handle their emotions. It’s important to talk to your child about the way they feel when they begin to get angry, and some of those feelings may include:

• A quickening heartbeat
• Tensing of muscles
• Clenching of teeth or fists
• A churning of the stomach
• Reddening of the face

Tips to help your child cope with their anger:

Working together with your child to discover the triggers for their anger and discussing coping

mechanisms with them, can be hugely helpful. Here are a few simple ways in which your child can learn to manage their anger:

• Encourage them to count to 10 when they feel themselves getting angry
• Walking away from the source of their anger
• Taking deep breaths
• Clenching and unclenching their fists
• Talking to an adult that they trust
• Going to a quiet, private place to calm down

If you see the onset of anger symptoms in your child, you could try to communicate this to them so that they can begin utilizing their coping mechanisms.

If your child continues to struggle with their anger, then it may be time to seek professional help, as counselors are well trained to help kids of all ages identify the roots of, and make peace with, their anger.

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The Difference Between Enjoying A Drink And Alcoholism

Mind altering drinks (and plants and fungi!) have been in existence for centuries, and of course there’s a reason why some enjoy them so much. When enjoying a drink or two, it can sometimes be hard to know whether your drinking is within healthy boundaries, or whether you may have an alcohol dependency:

 

If you start drinking and find it hard to stop, you may have a problem:

For many people battling with an alcohol dependency, they describe their alcoholism as being like a switch that literally gets flipped after the first sip of a drink. They struggle to stop at just one or two, and often end up drinking far too much.

 

Do you constantly worry about whether your glass is full?

Are there times when you should be engaged in the conversation going on at your table, but instead you’re trying to (metaphorically or literally) catch the bartender’s eye for him to refill your glass before you’ve even finished; this behavior may indicate that you have a dependency upon alcohol, or at the very least, an unhealthy relationship with it.

 

If you regularly black out from alcohol consumption, you very likely have a problem:

There may be the occasional time when you’ve attended a party and drank more than you realized, causing you to black out, but if this is happening on a regular basis, then please seriously think about seeking professional help for alcohol dependency and abuse.

 

Is your life beginning to slip through your fingers?

If excessive drinking is beginning to prevent you from functioning in your everyday life and causing you to feel unable to take steps towards a ‘normal’ life, then talking to a professional about your problem is likely to help, and if you seek help soon enough, there’s every chance that you could quickly begin to get your life back on track.

 

Do you feel ashamed of the way you behave when you’re drunk?

While you may not always remember how you behaved after a long night of drinking, there will be plenty of people out there who will remember, and if you hear repeated reports about things you got up to that embarrass you or make you feel ashamed, it’s a good time to get some support to bring your drinking, and your life, into a healthier balance.

 

Perhaps the most important question to ask yourself if you’re not sure whether you need to seek help for your alcohol dependency (or if you even have a dependency), is whether your life feels happy and you feel healthy. If you wake up a lot of mornings with a sore head, feeling down and depressed, and constantly worrying, then these are clear signs that you might be doing more than simply enjoying a drink; you may be using drinks to cope with larger issues. If that’s the case, please seek the care you very much deserve.

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Analyzing Your Anger

Episodes of anger are perfectly normal for all of us, and they may be in response to a certain situation, or may arise due to an argument over something in which we feel passionate about. However, frequent bouts of anger or episodes in which the anger is uncontrollable, may may indicate that we need to analyze our feelings better and work towards reducing the level or frequency of our anger.

 

What is anger?

Anger is an emotion or feeling, and when communicated thoughtfully, does not usually cause others to feel attacked. However, expressing anger poorly (aggressively) in behavior and words can certainly be harmful to others and may even lead to physical anger and arguments. The sooner we learn to understand and accept that our emotions belong to us and that can learn how to best express them, the better we can limit any harmful or upsetting repercussions.

 

How can anger be managed?

Managing anger may be easier for some than for others, and we can either manage the situation we’re in that is making us angry, or we can manage our responses to such a strong emotion. If you’re frequently finding yourself in situations that are out of your control, then you may need to work on addressing your emotional responses.

There are a few ways in which you can learn to control your emotions, particularly anger, and meditation, self-awareness and other cognitive practices can be immensely helpful. For those who are not keen on such forms of therapy though, it may be prudent to try and shift the focus, from managing our emotions, to managing our emotional responses. If we decide that the behaviors we frequently display when we’re feeling angry are not conducive to peace and harmony, then we can to try and change them.

 

When do you need to worry about your anger?

Knowing when your anger may be something to worry about is not always easy, and some may wish to address and analyze their anger irrespective of whether it’s causing problems in their life.

But if you feel angry every day, or are struggling to control your anger when in certain situations and find that your behavior is harming others, then it might be time to talk to a qualified therapist.

 

Anger is a normal emotion, just like happiness and sadness, but when our emotional expressions begin to impact our lives in a negative way, then we need to thoughtfully address the issue.

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Is Your Love Of Food A Destructive One?

The term ‘comfort food’ exists for a reason, and there is no shame in finding comfort in certain foods, in fact, it’s completely normal. Problems can arise, however, when we take this too far and forget that food is meant as fuel (and joy) for our bodies, not a substitute for heartfelt love or comfort. A destructive love of food can come about when it becomes your only coping mechanism, and the only reliable thing in your life.

Food becomes unhealthy when used as a frequent tool to help you cope with issues in your life, and when you’re depending on food to help pick you up or make you feel good instead of finding other ways to deal with your problems.

 

Make it common practice to turn to other, more positive things to help you cope:

We all know that food won’t make our problems go away, right? In fact, for many, comfort eating can lead to a whole host of secondary problems, such as weight gain and other related health issues. But we still enjoy turning to food when times are tough because it makes us feel so good, at least initially.

However, learn to turn to other comforting things to help you address your feelings, and you’ll soon get out of any destructive habits caused by comfort eating. Here are a few things that you could do instead of indulging in your favorite comforting foods:

 

• Light a scented candle and immerse yourself in your favorite soothing or uplifting fragrance
• Sit somewhere comfy and peaceful, and read a novel or good book
• Try writing down how you’re feeling in a journal
• Get out and go for a walk. Clear your head and immerse yourself in nature and the world around you. This often helps to give you a better sense of perspective and view of the bigger picture.
• Talk to a trusted friend or family member about how you’re feeling

 

• Indulge in a long, hot bath or shower. Use your favorite bathing products and unwind both your body and mind.
• Watch your favorite show

 

Try one of the above the next time your emotions begin to run high and you feel as if things are getting a little out of control. Recognizing your patterns of behavior is one of the first steps towards a healthier way of dealing with problems, and once you break the habit of comfort eating, you’ll soon find even more ways of giving yourself the comfort that you need.

 

If an unhealthy reliance upon food is taking over your life, it might be time to talk to a counselor about the cause of your discomfort, anguish or pain, before it develops into an eating disorder that could be much harder to cure. If you love your food and want to love your life, too, then rest assured that you can achieve a healthy balance, you just might need a little help getting there.

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