People who struggle with drug or alcohol addiction often live with underlying mental health issues. Until these secondary issues are identified and effectively managed, the desire to continue using substances will remain. Having both substance use disorder and a co-occurring mental health disorder is known as comorbidity. With comorbidity, substance abuse is often the direct result of addicts’ efforts to self-treat or mitigate their own pain.
For those with comorbidities, addiction treatment can include services that actually eliminate the need or desire to use by promoting mood balance, general peace of mind, and normalized mental functioning. If you’ve been living with addiction and have tried and failed in recovery before, your past efforts may have been thwarted by an undiagnosed, untreated mental health issue. This is frequently the case with bipolar personality disorder (BPD).
Once referred to as manic depression, bipolar disorder causes extreme mood swings. People tend to fluctuate between periods of steep emotional highs or feelings of absolute euphoria, and periods of overwhelming depression. BPD is characterized by:
- Excessively rapid speech
- Racing thoughts
- Higher than average levels of mental and physical energy
- Erratic sleeping patterns
- Marked transitions between excessively irritable, angry, and happy moods
- Impulsive thoughts, behaviors, and decisions
In substance abuse treatment, correctly diagnosing bipolar disorder is critical. Because bipolar disorder does not have a known cure, patients must receive needs-specific management plans for keeping the symptoms of their BPD under control. When diagnoses are inaccurate, this can mean spending a lifetime on BPD medications that are not actually helping the individual, and that may in fact be detrimental to their health.
More importantly, when BPD diagnoses are missed, patients are at risk of receiving inadequate treatment that ineffectively meets the needs of their underlying mental health issues. One of the biggest challenges in making an accurate diagnosis of BPD when substance use disorder simultaneously exists is the fact that the symptoms of addiction often mirror those of bipolar disorder. Drug users themselves can be prone to racing thoughts, impulsive behaviors, erractic sleeping, and other developments similar to those with BPD.
Successfully Treating BPD and Substance Use Disorder Together
Those living with undiagnosed BPD have a statistically high rate of both prescription and non-prescription opioid use. BPD suffers are also known to use benzodiazepines, stimulants such as cocaine and methamphetamine, alcohol, and marijuana. Given their constantly fluctuating moods, some people might use drugs from multiple drug classes to achieve and maintain feelings of normalcy. During drug treatment, doctors and counselors may spend significant periods of time asking patients about their history of substance use, the types of substances preferred, and the effects that they promote.
This manner of questioning along with other diagnostic measures can be useful for determining whether or not a person’s symptoms indicate bipolar personality disorder or are merely the result of prolonged drug use. One very important thing to note about efforts to self-manage underlying mental health disorders with alcohol or illicit substances is that self-treatment can actually cause problems like BPD to intensify. Drugs that people use to alleviate their symptoms may be exacerbating their disorders and causing increased discomfort. Thus, someone who uses cocaine to promote feelings of euphoria when experiencing periods of severe depression will likely need to increase the amount of cocaine that they use over time as both tolerances is built and BPD symptoms increase.
In short, the same solutions that people use for self-treatment can actually be responsible for causing their conditions or worsening them. When BPD is suspected at the start of drug treatment, but is determined through careful and comprehensive diagnostic processes to not actually exist, patients have the opportunity to establish long-term recovery plans that don’t require ongoing medical intervention. Once fully detoxed and able to participate in other forms of addiction treatment, many discover that the suspected symptoms of BDP naturally abate as their minds and bodies heal from drug addiction.
However, it is dangerous for treatment centers to automatically assume that mood fluctuations, impulsive behaviors, and other common symptoms of BPD are merely the result of substance abuse. When BPD exists, recovering addicts will continue to struggle in their efforts to remain sober until effective treatment and management strategies are implemented. Fortunately, there are many thoughtful, holistic rehab programs with services for comorbidity that place a strong emphasis on the accurate diagnosis of underlying mental health disorders. If you’ve been using drugs or alcohol to help mitigate your mood swings and want to learn more about addiction treatment for those with comorbidities, we can help. Call us today at 844-844-3463.