How many times have you heard another person say their depression causes them to see the world a little differently. If you are like the rest of us, you have probably heard that several times.
If you thought it sounded like nonsense or left you confused, you are not alone. Chances are the person or persons who make this kind of comment don’t fully understand what they are saying. What’s really interesting is they might be right.
Throughout the world, hundreds of millions of people suffer from some level of depression. It is by far the most common mental or emotional illness known to humankind. That is exactly why so much research goes into looking for the causes of and solutions for depression.
From thousands of studies related to depression comes evidence that depressed people do see the world differently. According to psychologist Rachel Msetfi of the University of Limerick, there seems to be a correlation between depression and how people deal with time. Researchers call this “the time dilation effect.” If someone has a distorted perception of time, it stands to reason they would have a distorted perception of the world as well.
Msetfi stated in a publication: “Subtle changes in the way we process time may contribute to the sense of helplessness [in people with depression]. If you have disturbances in the way you process time and context and the relationship between them, then you’re going to have some disturbance in your experience of everyday life and reality.”
If you feel depression makes you perceive the world differently than others, the evidence says you are correct. Unfortunately, it would seem that your perception issues have led you down the path of substance abuse. As you well know, that is not a good thing.
If there is a chance your depression is what led you to substance, you would have what the addiction treatment community calls cooccurring disorders. To be clear, there has to be a “direct” correlation between your emotional illness and your desire to cope with it by abusing drugs or alcohol. If there is evidence to suggest that correlation exists, you really do need to think about getting help.
About Dual Diagnosis Therapy
The notion you might have co-occurring disorders puts you in a big club of people with the same diagnosis. It has become common enough that top rehab centers like ours now offer dual diagnosis therapy. What is dual diagnosis therapy?
As the name would, suggest it’s a therapeutic model that treats two disorders at the same time. In your case, that would likely be depression and your addiction. The key to a successful dual diagnosis therapy program is both disorders need treatment at the same time. This is of vital importance because of the risk associated with the untreated disorder interfering with the treatment of the other disorder.
As an example, let’s say you go into rehab and start working with a therapist on the root causes of your addiction. The fact that depression is one of those root causes is very relevant. If you can’t resolve or at least work on your depression issue, what good would treating the addiction do? The reality is you would finish treatment, leave rehab, and your depression that still exists would lead you right back to substance abuse. This is the perfect model for a relapse.
Dual diagnosis therapy with a highly trained specialist can diminish the likelihood of a relapse simply by treating both disorders at the same time. The challenge is finding the right resources for dual-diagnosis therapy. In fact, there are three ways you can get this kind of specialized treatment. They include:
- Working with an inhouse addiction treatment specials who is also licensed to treat mental/emotional disorders
- Working with two in-house therapists at the same time with one licensed for addiction treatment and the other licensed to treat mental/emotional disorders
- Working with an inhouse therapist on the addiction disorder with treatment for the mental/emotional disorder being outsourced to another facility for licensed therapy
We are sorry to find out that you may be suffering from co-occurring disorders. At the same time, we would like to inform you that we can provide you with the dual diagnosis therapy you will likely need. The fact is we need to bring you in for an assessment. To get this process rolling, we want you to call one of our administrative staff members at 833-820-2922.