Many people who struggle with addiction suffer from comorbidity. However, what is comorbidity? What does this term mean, how common is it, and how does it relate to addiction? It’s important for people who struggle with addiction and their family members to understand.
What Is Comorbidity?
In terms of addiction, comorbidity refers to other mental disorders that make treating addiction harder. In most cases, this condition refers to situations in which mental disorders occur at the same time. However, there are situations in which the conditions occur one right after the other.
For example, let’s say that someone has an addiction to alcohol. After treating the addiction, the person develops depression. While these conditions didn’t appear together, they still fit under the category of comorbidity.
Is Addiction Curable?
Unfortunately, addiction is a disease that isn’t fully curable. Once people develop it, they struggle with it their whole lives. The purpose of rehab is to help them control the disease. To achieve that, however, they have to deal with underlying mental health issues.
Failure to deal with comorbid disorders often results in relapse. The reason for relapse relates to the disorders feeding off of each other. For instance, drug use can trigger depression, and depression can trigger drug use. Treating one without treating the other only deals with half of the problem.
Common Mental Disorders That Occur With Addiction
What is comorbidity and how common is it? In terms of addiction and other mental conditions, people can suffer from many psychological health problems. Some of the most common that accompany addiction include:
- Depression
- Anxiety and other panic disorders
- Schizophrenia
- Manic depression (bipolar disorder)
- Sleep disorders
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
There’s no certain order for co-occurring disorders to develop. Some people develop addiction first, which opens the door to other mental disorders. Other times, they develop an addiction because of an underlying mental disorder.
In either case, it’s important to deal with both problems. Each mental disorder requires its own extensive treatment. When people deal with comorbid disorders, treating the accompanying disorders is just as important as treating the addiction.
Let Us Help You Take on Your Mental Disorders
At Morningside Recovery, we understand how important it is to deal with underlying mental disorders. We believe that treatment starts with proper detox and moves on to residential treatment. Working with our friendly staff members, you can get the mental health treatment that you need to beat co-occurring disorders. Some of the programs that we offer include:
- Personality disorder treatment
- Supervised detox
- Residential treatment
- Aftercare
- Intensive outpatient treatment
Don’t choose to fight your addiction alone. After understanding “what is comorbidity,” make the decision to kick your addiction and other disorders to the curb. Reach out to us today at 855-631-2135 to find out how we can help you.
