Bipolar depression is, by any measurement, an extraordinarily difficult condition to live with. The disease subjects its victims to withering lows and frightening highs, leaving them unable to exercise any meaningful degree of control over their emotional state. It’s not surprising, then, that so many bipolar depression sufferers turn to drugs and alcohol as a means of self-medication. What might not be so obvious is that bipolar depressives cannot get sober without first being healed on a psychological level.

Addiction is not a self-generating disease. It has both physical and psychological roots, and only by addressing and eradicating those roots can an addiction treatment program achieve lasting success. If you or someone you care about is a bipolar victim with a substance abuse problem, you need the most thorough care you can get. The good news is that the right substance abuse treatment program…the one that targets bipolar depression and addiction simultaneously…really can help you get better. The only catch is that you have to find it. For your own sake, let today be the day you finally start looking.

A mood disturbance is any condition which prevents a victim from properly regulating or adjusting to her emotional state. Mood disorder victims, in other words, are incapable of coping with emotional highs and lows, and are thus in an important sense quite literally slaves to their own feelings. The net result is, obviously, an extraordinarily unpleasant way of being…which perhaps explains why so many victims of mood disturbances resort to substance abuse as a means of dulling the pain.

The obvious corollary here is that an addict suffering from a mood disturbance can’t get sober without first achieving meaningful psychological recovery. In practical terms, that means that the best addiction treatment centers are those which use dual diagnosis techniques to address patients’ underlying mental health issues. The most successful drug and alcohol rehab promotes holistic healing, and helps addicts get better from the inside-out. With so much to lose, and so much more to win, you’d be making a gross mistake if you didn’t resolve to learn that lesson for yourself.

Social phobia is exactly what it sounds like: a fear of social interaction. It’s important to note, though, that social phobia, or social anxiety disorder, is by no means a choice, or a product of rational will. On the contrary, it’s a disease, and like all diseases it can only be eradicated with expert clinical help. Victims of social phobia cannot reason their way to healing. They cannot simply decide to get better, or resolve to overcome their pathology. On the contrary, they need help from caregivers they can trust. Any other course of action is a recipe for failure.

It’s also important to note here that there exists a strong correlation between social phobia and substance abuse. This is perhaps unsurprising. Social phobics are subject to acute psychological distress in social situations, and thus are likely to turn to drugs and alcohol as means of relief. That connection, of course, means that addiction treatment can only be successful if it includes intensive psychological counseling. In fact, successful dual diagnosis can mean the difference between the success and failure of a rehab program. If you or someone you care about is a victim of addiction and social phobia, it’s well past time you learned that for yourself.

Post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is any condition in which a patient is plagued by the psychological aftereffects of a traumatic event. The trigger for post traumatic stress disorder can be any of a number of painful or shocking disturbances, from combat experiences to car crashes to everything in-between. Victims of PTSD are typically subject to chronic and unpredictable flashbacks to the even itself, and to a wide range of psychological maladies associated with the failure to achieve meaningful closure. It is, simply stated, not a pleasant way to live one’s life.

It should perhaps be no surprise that many victims of post traumatic stress disorder turn to substance abuse as a means of self-medication. What might not be so obvious is that addiction treatment can’t be successful if it doesn’t address a patient’s underlying psychiatric health. An addict with PTSD cannot get sober without first getting psychologically healed. If you or someone you care about is a PTSD victim with a substance abuse problem, you can’t get better unless you get all-the-way better. For your own sake, let today be the day you find an addiction treatment program that can help you do just that.

A personality disorder is a maladaptive pattern of behavior with crippling social and personal implications. Personality disorders generally have deep pathological roots, with the obvious consequence that individual victims can’t simply “choose” to behave differently. On the contrary, recovery from a personality disorder invariably requires intensive psychological counseling, which can only be delivered by caregivers who know exactly what they’re doing. If you’re going to get healed, in other words, you’re going to need help.

Successful treatment for depression and a personality disorder is very often essential to the addiction treatment process, especially insofar as addiction can be a product of the general life conditions produced by personality disorders themselves. Think of it this way: An individual suffering from a personality disorder is likely to find himself in one bad situation after another. To cope, he’s very likely to self-medicate with drugs or alcohol. In that sense, sobriety can’t be achieved without meaningful psychological healing. In the end, there’s simply no other way to get better.

Dysthymia is the clinical term for persistent mild depression. In a nutshell, dysthymia is the rough equivalent of a chronic bad mood, with the important distinction that it never goes away. To be dysthmic is not simply to be prone to bouts of gloominess. On the contrary, it is to live one’s life forever under a cloud, plagued by a subtle and nameless sense of malaise that can’t ever be escaped. Under those circumstances, it’s perhaps no surprise that many victims of dysthymia resort to substance abuse as a means of self-medication…and that all substance abuse treatment programs must address the disease if they’re to achieve success.

Dysthymia is in some ways more dangerous than clinical depression, insofar as it is harder to detect and thus more likely to be overlooked in the depression treatment and addiction treatment processes. Again, though, dysthmic addicts cannot get sober without proper psychological care. The rehabilitation center that’s right for you is the one with an advanced dual diagnosis program, and an explicit emphasis on holistic healing. In the end, nothing less could ever be good enough.