May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and there’s no better time to embrace it than during addiction treatment. Substance use disorder is often viewed as simply a matter of drug or alcohol abuse, but it’s inherently tied to mental health. A trauma therapy program can help address the root causes of addiction.
Nearly half of all individuals with a substance use disorder also have a mental health disorder. For many, substance use is an ineffective attempt to deal with mental health struggles by self-medicating.
Contact Midwest Recovery at 833.627.0039 to discuss addiction and co-occurring disorders treatment options.
Embrace Mental Health Awareness Month
Here are three ways to embrace Mental Health Awareness Month during addiction treatment.
Seek Dual-Diagnosis Treatment
Addiction treatment is the best time to get serious about your mental health. Substance use disorder doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Getting to the roots of mental health disorders is crucial to paving the road for long-term recovery from substance use.
Common mental health disorders that are often identified during addiction treatment include:
- Depression
- Anxiety disorder
- PTSD
- ADD
- ADHD
- Bipolar disorder
- Eating disorders
- Mood disorders
If you suffer from one of these common mental health disorders, the best thing you can do for your health and well-being is ask for help during addiction treatment.
You’ll receive dual-diagnosis treatment that will be more effective than addiction treatment alone. Untreated co-occurring disorders take a serious toll on a person’s quality of life.
Getting honest about your struggles and asking for help can feel frightening, but in the long run, you might be shocked by how much the right treatment can improve your life.
Ditch the Shame
One of the worst things you can do during addiction treatment is to stay silent. It’s very common to experience feelings of shame, guilt, and self-consciousness around substance use and mental health subjects.
Addiction treatment programs are designed to create an environment of openness and support. The best way to help yourself during addiction treatment is to share openly and honestly about your struggles.
Working to overcome shame won’t just impact your treatment. It will make a long-term difference to your overall happiness and your most important relationship – the one you have with yourself.
One of the best aspects of embracing mental health awareness is realizing that your problems aren’t yours alone. It can bring relief and affirmation to realize that your fellow patients in addiction treatment understand and experience the same challenges.
Practice Self-Care
Practicing self-care is crucial to both addiction treatment and dual-diagnosis treatment. Self-care has become a buzzword in recent years, and it often gets reduced to treating yourself to a latte or a pedicure. That’s not self-care.
True self-care is routinely, habitually doing the work needed to care for yourself properly. This can take many forms. Yoga class can be self-care since your body needs movement to maintain physical health.
However, sometimes self-care isn’t enjoyable. Recognizing you have a substance use disorder and entering addiction treatment is a form of self-care. So is seeking co-occurring disorder treatment.
The key to self-care is learning to balance the hard with the fun.
A difficult therapy session might be just what you need to recognize a trauma that contributes to your substance use. Picking up a crayon might help you recall that you were passionate about art when you were young.
Embracing mental health means working to create a life you enjoy living.
Midwest Recovery Supports Mental Health Awareness
For a long time, shame and stigma surrounded the topic of mental health. This left people emotionally isolated and struggling in silence.
Midwest Recovery embraces Mental Health Awareness Month to continue lifting this stigma. Mental health disorders are common and treatable. Normalizing discussions of mental health encourages people to get the treatment they need to thrive.
Contact Midwest Recovery at 833.627.0039 for more information on diagnosis and treatment for mental health conditions and co-occurring disorders.
