When Your Journey Is Complicated
Addiction is never simple, straightforward, or easy. Addiction involves so many different issues and challenges for different people. An easy-sounding solution is rarely the correct solution. A treatment program that downplays the level of commitment on the part of the patient, or that makes the journey to recovery appear easy and “no big deal” will likely fail. Oftentimes, a person’s struggle with addiction is entangled with a person’s struggle to cope with a mental health issue. Mental health issues, much like addiction issues, are never simple or straightforward either. So, what do you do if you are seeking help for your addiction, and you are also struggling with a mental illness that seems to complicate your addiction issues? You find a treatment center that specializes in patients with a dual diagnosis. Welcome to our christian dual diagnosis treatment center.
The Reality of Mental Illness In Addiction
Much like addiction, mental illness is never a challenge anyone should feel shame or judgment in acknowledging or treating. Mental illness is no more a moral failing on the part of the patient than is a ruptured appendix or high blood pressure. Mental illness is a medical issue, and no patient should feel shame in seeking treatment for a medial issue. When an individual finds themselves struggling with an addiction, it is not uncommon at all to find a mental illness co-occurring. This crucial fact is why it is so vital for addiction treatment centers to include dual diagnosis treatment in their plans for their patients. We are a Christian dual diagnosis treatment center. Our clinicians are highly trained to treat not only addiction issues, but also mental health issues that frequently co-occur with addiction. While every patient is unique in their specific struggles with addiction and mental illness (and at our facility are certainly treated with great care and individuality), we do find common threads in the relationship between patients’ mental health issues and addiction. These two issues frequently co-exist, and as such, it is necessary for an addiction treatment center to be equipped to address both issues concurrently. Ignoring a patient’s mental health issue in the course of their addiction treatment is a grave mistake on the part of a provider that could delay or prevent a patient from achieving recovery.
Choosing Your Care With Dual Diagnosis In Mind
We would love to exclaim with unmitigated confidence that every addiction treatment center is well equipped to treat patients with a dual diagnosis. We would love to believe that, regardless of the center that a person chooses for treatment, they will receive the best treatment that is available, with the most scientifically-backed practices and the most knowledgeable, highly-certified clinicians to guide them into recovery. However, we cannot say this with confidence. We know that this is not the case at all. Not every treatment center offers treatment for patients with a dual diagnosis. Not every treatment center takes the care to work with patients both on their addiction and on their mental health. Not every treatment center is willing to take the time that is required to treat a dual diagnosis in an effective way. Our Christian dual diagnosis treatment center is willing and capable. We will take the time and employ our expertise to give our patients the care their dual diagnosis requires.
Taking A Diagnosis Seriously
Rest assured that, if you seek treatment at our center, you will not be labeled with co-occurring diagnoses just for the heck of it. Our clinicians are highly trained and legally licensed to diagnose and treat mild to moderate mental illness. We fully appreciate that recovery cannot begin without a proper, solid, accurate foundation to a person’s treatment. Diagnosing a patient with the wrong mental illness, or failing to diagnose them at all where a diagnosis truly is warranted, sets back a patient’s treatment to a remarkable degree. Therefore, at our Christian dual diagnosis treatment center, we take great care to gather all of the information about our new patients, to try to understand the larger picture of who a patient is and what their struggles and experiences are, so we can provide the best treatment for each patient. Treating a patient without comprehensively understanding any mental health issues, misdiagnosing mental illness, or failing to recognize any mental illness at all when a mental illness is present, is similar to treating a patient for the chicken pox when they’re really suffering from an ear infection. The diagnosis needs to be accurate in order for the treatment to be accurate.
One Size Fits You
Many of our patients receive treatment at our dual diagnosis treatment center due to a co-occurring mental illness and substance addiction. We never receive a patient with the assumption that we know precisely what the diagnosable mental illness is. Mental illness presents itself in different ways with different people, and addiction can co-exist with a wide variety of mental illnesses—or with no mental illness at all. Our Christian dual diagnosis treatment center takes great care to properly diagnose each patient, and makes no blanket assumption that all of our patients fit under the same mental health umbrella. The following is a list of some of the more common mental illnesses our facility frequently treats alongside addiction treatment: depression, anxiety, obsessive/compulsive/impulsive issues, borderline personality disorder, bipolar disorder, social phobias, posttraumatic stress disorder, and environmental stressors. We do not treat any of these mental illnesses (or any other mental illness) on its own. However, when our clinical professionals determine that a patient seeking addiction treatment also is struggling with a mental illness, we will also administer treatment for the patient’s mental illness.
Embracing Medical Science In Recovery
At our Christian dual diagnosis treatment center, our clinical professionals are board certified and legally licensed to treat mental illness, including prescribing medication as necessary and appropriate. We understand that prescribing medication to patients who are seeking addiction treatment may seem counter-intuitive, or not quite in line with the goal of the patient’s journey toward recovery. However, we understand and appreciate that, in some instances, mental illness requires treatment that involves psychotherapeutic medication. Certain (but certainly not all) mental illnesses simply cannot be managed in the absence of responsibly prescribed medication. The goal of our treatment programs is to help our patients achieve a healthy, productive life. Our clinicians prescribe these medications only where medically appropriate, and under close supervision and oversight, with very clear understanding that our patients are also seeking recovery for their addiction. We sincerely hope that potential patients to our dual diagnosis treatment center can trust our clinical professionals with their mental health and addiction recovery, and rest assured that every decision made in their recovery process is ultimately with their successful recovery in mind.
Christian Treatment Is A Marathon
Treatment is never a quick fix. This is especially true when a patient has a dual diagnosis. Issues dealing with addiction and mental illness (each issue on its own, and also both issues compounded together) require careful, thoughtful, purposeful time to sort through, identify, and begin healing. We encourage our patients not to begin treatment at our dual diagnosis treatment center with the expectation that they will achieve recovery in any sort of expedited manner. To try to speed up recovery and mental illness treatment is to do a serious disservice to our patients and to reduce the likelihood of meaningful recovery to a remarkable degree. We expect our patients to accept the long view of treatment. Their recovery relies on their day-to-day, moment-to-moment commitment to treating their addiction and their mental illness. If a patient has a dual diagnosis, we cannot treat one issue and ignore the other. We must treat both issues in tandem in order to elevate the patient’s chances of achieving a full, healthy life in recovery. And, without exception, this process takes time. Patients may benefit from adopting the mindset that trying to speed up their recovery now will truly only prolong their journey toward recovery into the future. We encourage our patients to take the time and the care required to treat their addiction now, in the present. Patients who fail to commit themselves fully to the entire process may very well find themselves back in a treatment facility further down the road. Choose a dual diagnosis treatment center that is committed to the long view of recovery.
Christian Recovery Is A Family Affair
Just like addiction affects an entire family, mental illness also affects an entire family. People who our patient loves dearly have been coping with that patient’s addiction and mental illness for sometimes years and years. Regardless of how successful a person’s addiction and mental health treatment are, a family who is left at home in the patient’s absence is not receiving any treatment, and is not recovering in their own way and from their own (often unhealthy) coping strategies. That is, unless the patient is seeking treatment at our Christian dual diagnosis treatment center. Our treatment program takes the long view of recovery, recognizing that recovery does not begin and end with the patient’s time within the walls of our facility. Treatment must reach across diagnoses (which is why we offer our dual diagnosis treatment program); treatment must reach into the future (which is why we offer a variety of outpatient options after a completed inpatient program); and, crucially, why treatment must reach the patient’s home life. While a patient is receiving treatment at our dual diagnosis treatment center, the patient’s family is also receiving their own variety of treatment. Patients’ family members receive weekly therapy sessions to help them learn and develop new, healthy methods of coping, to best stack the deck toward true, lasting, meaningful recovery for the patient and their family. This family therapy is offered at no extra cost to our patients. Patients will find that, in every element of their treatment, our treatment center is truly dedicated to the full recovery of each of our patients.
What does it mean to be a Christian dual diagnosis treatment center? How does our policy of placing God at the center of our approach to our patients’ treatment impact our center’s outcomes? We believe that our God-centered treatment plans change absolutely everything for our patients’ recovery. Our dedication to treating patients with a dual diagnosis absolutely positively impacts our patients’ chances of meaningful recovery, but we believe that meaningful recovery is truly meaningful when God is at the center of it. We identify our dual diagnosis treatment center as being Christian because it is the most important identifying factor of our practice. We are Christian above everything else. Our love for and dedication to God informs how we view our patients: as precious, priceless, irreplaceable children of God. We refuse to give up on our patients because God refuses to give up on us. God loves us, cherishes us, through the struggle of addiction, through the challenges of mental illness. God calls us to a place of healing, and we are dedicated to helping our patients embrace the healing that God so deeply desires for His children.
A Place To Find Meaningful Christian Treatment
We have already discussed the reality that you will find other Christian rehabilitation treatment facilities. You will also find other facilities that claim to treat patients with a dual diagnosis. We believe we cannot firmly enough emphasize that you will not find a Christian dual diagnosis treatment center quite like us. We are committed to our patients. We are committed to the latest, most up to date evidence-based practices. We are committed to the God of the universe, who loves each of us perfectly and without exception. We are committed to the process of treating a dual diagnosis, not cutting corners or rushing through treatment, but dedicating ourselves to the time that treatment requires. We are committed to the families of our patients, who also are traveling on a path toward healing. Our Christian dual diagnosis treatment center is a comprehensive rehabilitation program whose services cannot be duplicated by other facilities. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to assist you on your journey toward true, meaningful, lasting recovery.