The Substance Abuse Disorder and Mental Health Issues

Co-Occurring Disorder and the Substance Disorder The concept of disorder in people has been a hard to grasp condition and psychiatrists often face various challenges in handling these patients since there is no single blueprint on how to handle the patients who walk into their offices. The co-occurring disorders effectively present an even more complex situation as the psychiatrist has to deal with the preceding disorder and the occurring disorder in order for the patient to be claimed to have fully recovered.

With the high rates of recidivism this is a task that is very complicated and rarely achieved. The statistics in the presented in the chapter speck volumes of the way the co-occurring disorder is being handled in the U.S. and even more so the related drug abuse statistics that are captured in various researches. One statistical piece that never presented a surprise in the read is the high number of people with substance use disorder who di not seek any kind of help for the same.

According to the article, the national Institute on Drug Abuse in 2010 found out that 25 million Americans on estimation suffered the substance use disorder, but among these, only two mullion sought help, representing only 10%. In as much as the high number of drug abuse patients is shocking, the low number who sought help is not shocking since the society has presented several reasons and environments that facilitates this.

First, the use of drugs has over the years gained acceptance such that people joke about it and do not view it as a serious disease hence the low number of people being referred to the hospitals or relevant places for medication. The society has also neglected those abusing drugs as outcasts whose fate is sealed hence are given no immediate help. The drug use culture prevalent among youth has also made it hard for those already addicted to see themselves as having a problem hence never seek medical attention.

On the other hand, one statistical piece that stood out as an interesting fact is that there have been researches that have establish that among the individuals with co-occurring psychiatric as well as substance-related disorder, 90% of the time, the mental health disorders come before the individual starts suffering the substance use disorder. This has changed the presumption that I have always had that it is the excessive consumption of the drugs and reliance on their effect that leads to the alteration of the brain functionality and hence the mental health.

This has come as a learning point especially for some dealing in counselling and rehabilitation of people living under drug addiction and influence. Diagnosing a substance use disorder there are x11 steps that the DSM-5 outlines as a yardstick for determining if an individual has substance use disorder or not. However, it is not that the drug user must display all the 11 signs to be categorized as a person who suffers substance use disorder, but the individual but may display three or more dependence criteria within a 12-month period.

The DSM-IV abuse gives the first four signs of an individual deemed to be abusing substance, then DSM-IV dependence gives the symptoms of an individual who has dependence on drugs problems, then DSM-5 gives a combination of these two as a diagnosis of an individual who then suffers from substance use disorder. These 11 criterion for the DSM-5 are; 1. Hazardous use 2. Social/interpersonal problems related to use 3. Neglected major roles to use 4. Legal problems 5. Withdrawal 6. Tolerance 7. Used larger amount longer 8. Repeated attempts to quit/control use 9. Much time spent using 10.

Physical / psychological problems related to use 11. Activities given up to use The first four are often categorized under the DSM-IV abuse, then the next 7 are categorized under DSM-IV dependence. When the two are combined, then it gives the DSM-5 criteria on substance use disorder. The legal problems criteria is often controversial due to the cultural diversity issues and the fact that it cannot be universally applied in all areas where drug abusers are located.

Craving is often brought in as the 11th criterion in the DSM-5 to replace the legal problems criteria (Hasin D.S., et.al, 2013:Pp836). Substance Abuse Treatment System and Mental Health Service System As seen hitherto, substance abuse disorder often comes after the onset of the mental health disorder in the individual, however, it is medically proven and recognized that both need medical intervention in order for the patient to recover and if left unattended to, they can both get worse.

There is need hence to have knowledge of both the system in order for a substance abuse patient to be able to fully recover. One similarity between the two systems is that they both work in a unidirectional manner to ensure the patient recovers from what they have become, they strive to eradicate the dependence that the patient has developed. Both the systems are also culture dependent in that the use of culturally competent approaches can foster recovery in both the system.

Both systems also heavily rely on the social networks and the family members of the mental health patient and the substance use disorder patient to help in the quick recovery of the patients. There are however some difference in the way the two systems work, for instance in the substance abuse treatment, one of the requisites is the abstinence and an environment that is free from alcohol or the drugs.

Having social gatherings that are sober and leisure and recreation that are free from drugs is one central approach to recovery used by the substance abuser treatment. This however is not a provision in the mental health services since the mental health is not dependent on the absence or presence of drugs. There may.