Ever since, the problem of cocaine addiction has always been present. In any society, cocaine can always give off bad effects. It can be a major variable to broke down one’s family. Wariness should always be present. This type of addiction usually starts from simple things leading to big and complicated problems.
The origins of cocaine can be traced from the coca plant. One can use cocaine in many different ways. It can be snorted for its effects to be felt faster. It can also be dissolved in water and be injected intravenously. The use of cocaine produces feelings of euphoria. People keep on using this kind of substance for repetition of this kind of experience.
There are indications when one can say that a person is cocaine addicted. These signs can be seen via intoxication symptoms and withdrawal symptoms. Examples of withdrawal symptoms are dysphoria, being restless, horrid kind of dreams, hypersomnia or insomnia, overeating, and a very high level of anxiety. On the other hand, convulsions,upper body pains, difficulty of breathing, muscle weakness, losing of weight, and changes in the behavior are examples of intoxication symptoms.
The very apparent change in behavior is the thing that is most noticed when one gets tangled to an addictive substance. These behavioral changes can include the following: sociability changes, too much in increase in being cautious, super sensitivity, too much anxiety, and easiness to get angry. As a way to describe these symptoms in a few words, it’s really a damaged way of thinking.
Mental illness can always be a result once the behavioral changes of using drugs starts to happen. There is a term called dual diagnosis which refers to the co-occurance of substance addiction and mental illness. The causality theory of dual diagnosis explain that there are certain types of substances that can lead to a mental disorder. This due to the fact of the effects the substance brings. Example of this is the substance cocaine.
This co-occurrence of a substance abuse problem and mental illness leads to the problem of how to treat an individual suffering this kind of situation. When one has substance abuse dilemmas, he or she is most of the time advised to be put in a center to recover. When one also has mental illness, there are centers that cater to their special needs. However, there are actually no centers that specialize in the treatment of a co-occurrence of a mental disorder and a substance abuse problem. Experts in treating substance abuse problems have little or no idea in treating a person with mental disorder and vice versa.
Dual diagnosis is quite new in the field of psychology that treatment for this situation only exists by standards. The way to treat dual diagnosis is by joining together the treatment for the problems of substance abuse and mental illness. The kind of treatment should not be taken apart from each other but like the disease, should co-exist.
Most times, dual diagnosis is hard to treat because symptoms of cocaine addiction and a mental illness tend to mask each other. There is also the problem of denial. In most cases, a cocaine addict would not confess that he or she is into drugs. The specialist would then conclude that the individual only has a mental illness when in fact, the mental illness is due to his or her use of the drugs. The greatest factor for dual diagnosis is recover is for the affected to really want help. The denial problem would be solved which makes the way to recovery to be on the way.
Dual diagnosis is the occurrence of cocaine addiction that can result to having a mental illness.
