Intro to Concurrent Disorders Issues
My friend Nick is in this article on teens who faced concurrent disorders which is an addiction and a mental health issue. Programs that treat concurrent disorders are few and far between. Many addictions and mental health programs will not admit you if you have a concurrent disorder.
I encountered one agency in my early years that sort of viewed my self harm as separate from my depression and said that they couldn’t take me. Services need to view people as whole people. We cannot separate our various issues and just focus on the one. My self harm was linked to depression the same way drug addiction can be linked to a mental health issue or vice versa.
Teens facing addiction and mental illness need services that treat both
Posted on May 5, 2012, in Articles/Video/Campaigns/Photos, Madness, Mental Health, Stigma/Discrimination, The Facts and tagged addictions, concurrent disorders, depression, lacking, mental health, mental illness, self harm, support, teens, The Toronto Star, treatment, youth. Bookmark the permalink. 6 Comments.
I understand the concurrent issue thing if it’s obviously unrelated. If you are bipolar and schizophrenic, I can see why they might be hesitant. But depression and anxiety are usually results of something. They are usually triggered by something (a pregnancy, a loss).
It’s not something the patient has to live with forever, if you’d help them.
Concurrent is specifically addiction and mental illness. Or you can have a dual diagnosis which is a mental illness with a mental disability such as autism for example. Eating disorders also occasionally get left behind. Mental health programs will take you if you have depression but not if you have depression and an eating disorder.
It’s about mental health services having the proper training to deal with the multiple parts of a person. Not many can.
That is ridiculous. My friend has an ED; you can’t have an eating disorder without depression. I think it’s basically impossible.
That’s one thing that makes me mad too! A drug addiction can cause depression or depression can cause a drug addiction!
Concurrent in my country is two separate disorders, which may or may not include an addiction. I’m sure it might be easier to work with sometimes but I totally agree that the WHOLE person needs to be treated. At one stage I was sent to one service for my ED and to another for depression. Their advice conflicted and they wondered why I was left floundering in the middle. Thankfully I left them both and found a therapist who would treat me as that whole person. It made all the difference.
Wow, two different programs! I can only imagine the confusion!