Two Different Diseases, Similar Symptoms

Once again, after “Jerry” came down off his high, he was left feeling sad and depressed. He often felt lower than before he got his fix. This has been going on since college, maybe even high school. Every time it was the same thing. He’d be feeling down and then have a drink and pop some pills to feel better. This was his cycle, although each time after he came down, he’d feel worse and worse. Everything had been going well in his life; family, career, church, friends, people counted on him.

But lately, his concentration has been lacking and he’s been showing up late or not at all. The promises he’d made to his kids were often broken. His wife would often be angry and until she finally stopped talking to him. His co-workers were often left baffled by his behavior. Jerry had become unreliable and despondent. His boss finally confronted him about his behavior and attitude. “What’s the matter? Do you need help, he asked?”

Let’s face it: the idea of going through rehab can be a daunting one. While deciding to enter a addiction treatment program is an crucial first step in the recovery process, too often the misconceptions and false beliefs about rehab programs can keep someone from getting the help they need. Some of the most common falsehoods about rehab are listed below – recognize any? If so, read on to gain a better understanding about how rehab works, and how it can help you or someone you love to live a life free of destructive addictions.

Why do some people become addicted, while others do not? Studies of identical twins indicate that as much as half of an individual's risk of becoming addicted to alcohol, or other drugs depends on his or her genes. Pinning down the biological basis for this risk is an important avenue of research for scientists trying to solve the problem of drug abuse.

Genes – functional units that make up our DNA – provide the information that directs our bodies' basic cellular activities. Research on the human genome has shown that the DNA sequences of any two individuals are 99.9% identical. However, that 0.1% variation is profoundly important, contributing to visible differences, like height and hair color, and to invisible differences, such as increased risk for heart disease, stroke, diabetes…and addiction.

On its own, drug or alcohol addiction is debilitating and can often lead to devastating results. For some, it’s even more daunting when dealing with a dual diagnosis.

Dual diagnosis occurs when an addict is also afflicted with a mental disorder, such as depression, anxiety, bi-polar disorder, schizophrenia and other personality disorders. In some cases, the mental disorder causes the addiction, leading people to use drugs or alcohol as a means of medication to feel better. Other times, the addiction itself leads a person to experience mental disorders.