How Can Your Anxiety Affect Your Residential Addiction Treatment?
It is not uncommon for those with drug addiction to have an additional mental condition, like anxiety. These are known as co-occurring disorders or dual diagnosis. Having a dual diagnosis can sometimes make inpatient treatment a little more complicated, but that shouldn’t dissuade anyone from seeking addiction help.
Before you call 800-481-6320Who Answers? for treatment help for your addiction, you should know the ways that your anxiety will affect your residential addiction treatment.
Both Conditions Need to Be Addressed Equally
Addiction is already a complex condition that has its own requirements for effective treatment, the National Institute on Drug Abuse states. Often, addressing things that contribute to its development or progression is a key aspect of treatment and recovery. In some cases, anxiety is one of those things and improper care of it can impede the treatment process for the addiction.
Likewise, ignoring a person’s anxiety in favor of treating the addiction can only make things worse in general. The two conditions need to be treated and addressed in equal measure for recovery to occur.
Medication Interactions
Treatment will not be as effective if your anxiety isn’t addressed.
Treatment for addiction can sometimes require medication, usually for the detoxification process. Depending on the drug a person was addicted to, how much of it was in their system, and how long they’ve been using, detox can be a long and difficult process that requires medication for health and safety reasons.
If you are taking medication for your anxiety, there is the chance that it may interact with the detox medications. It is not uncommon, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration states, for patients with co-occurring or dual diagnosis conditions like anxiety to have side effects from their medications affect their treatment.
Some side effects from medication, either for detox or for anxiety, may also affect treatment so it is best that your treatment providers are aware of exactly what you take.
Monitoring of Medication
Even in cases where medication is not needed for detoxification, medications for anxiety treatment can still pose an issue during residential treatment. It is possible to abuse anti-anxiety medications to the point of addiction, and while that may not be an issue for you specifically, it may pose a problem for other residents at the facility.
Staff members will need to be made aware of any prescriptions that you have for your anxiety and will require you to hand them over at the start of your treatment. They will most likely be administered to you by staff members, who will monitor your medications to ensure that there are no signs of abuse.
Customized Programming
Addiction treatment, to begin with, is often customized to meet the needs and wants of the patient. When a co-occurring condition like anxiety is involved, the treatment methods need to accommodate it to ensure efficacy.
There are many residential treatment programs that are specifically designed to handle certain co-occurring conditions. Usually, methods like therapy can treat the addiction and the anxiety simultaneously. If the treatment methods are addressing the conditions separately, communication will be needed to ensure that things are progressing equally.
Your treatment program should also be designed to accommodate any set-backs that occur during treatment for either condition, so one does not negatively impact the treatment of the other.
If you or a loved one has an addiction and anxiety, please know that help is available. Call 800-481-6320Who Answers? for the opportunity to speak with one of our caring specialists to learn more information about your treatment options.
