More than likely, you didn’t start out life with aspirations of having a drug addiction. Taking addictive drugs is sort of a “something is better than nothing” approach when managing an untreated mental illness. Unfortunately, moments of your life slip by forever as you wander in the wilderness of drug addiction and emotional pain. The price for temporary relief from drugs may be more than you realize.

Mental Illness and Drug Addiction Living Hell

A person with untreated mental illness will tell you how awful daily living really is. Minutes of misery feel like hours. Hours get sucked away just trying to isolate from others, rationalize with irrational emotional beasts inside, and cope with the basic responsibilities.

Most people in this situation would give anything to be free of the burden, even if just for a short time. But what most people in this spot don’t (and can’t ) rationally consider is the fallout of choosing drugs to deal with mental illness.

When you are plagued with depression, anxiety, or unpredictable mood swings, your judgment and critical thinking skills are messed up. A logical thinking process takes a bit of time to develop. This is nearly impossible with a constant stream of interruptive thoughts spelling doom and gloom, changing the subject, and expanding reasonable concerns into do-or-die catastrophies. Amazingly, you might scoff at the idea of drug treatment. It may not even cross your mind.

Beaten Down By Thoughts Drug Addiction Takes Hold

So instead of swimming upstream against the strong current of out-of-control thoughts and feelings, a person taking drugs to soothe mental illness minimizes the problems. This is a one time thing. It won’t really be that bad for me. I can stop any time. I won’t ever get hooked, it’s just for when things are really bad. It’s only (marijuana, beer, one hit of cocaine, etc).

Guess what else happens in the meantime? While your mental illness still goes untreated and you are now dabbling in a drug addiction, you miss moments of your life each day. Valuable moments of learning about your community, self awareness, interacting with your family, getting better at something, discovering new ideas, having pure fun – all of these take a back seat while you drown in your misery.

Managing mental illness with drugs and alcohol is like wrestling in a tar pit. Every move you make to take down your opponent actually drags you further down into the tar pit. Even some ill-advised moves you make to get out of the pit eventually pull you back in.

Drug Treatment Pulls You Out of the Drug Addiction Pit

But please – don’t go away from this post thinking mental illness and drug addiction are a one-way ticket to doomsday. A well-designed drug treatment center is the answer. You may think that drug rehab is too expensive, too scary, too long, too hard, or just too “something” for you. Even with your seriously imparied judgment, take a minute to see what your life would be if you did nothing to stop your current life direction.

Can you afford not to go to drug rehab – even if it scares the bejeebies out of you? What about losing those moments every day? Drug treatment for dual diagnosis can finally put you on a life path out of mental illness and away from drug addiction. Take a step forward and don’t miss another moment.

Tags: Drug Treatment Center, drug-rehab, Dual Diagnosis Drug Rehab Restores Precious Life Moment

   

About Erika K.

       

Erika K. has studied addiction and recovery for over ten years. As an accomplished writer, she uses the power of words to help men and women of all ages better understand issues of dependence and substance abuse.

Also written by: Erika K.