Millions of individuals diagnosed with psychiatric or emotional disorders must battle an equally menacing and
powerful disease-chemical dependency. A biological and psychological relationship exists between mental
illness and substance addiction.
Mental illnesses are health conditions involving changes in emotion, thinking or behavior (or a combination of
these). Mental illnesses are associated with distress and/or problems functioning in social, work or family
activities. Mental illness is common (American Psychological Association).
Types of mental illness
Mood disorders (such as depression or bipolar disorder)
Anxiety disorders.
Personality disorders.
Psychotic disorders (such as schizophrenia)
Eating disorders.
Trauma-related disorders (such as post-traumatic stress disorder)
Substance abuse disorders.
When someone is mentally ill, they have a health problem that affects how a person thinks, behaves and
interacts with others.
Substance addictions, also called substance use disorder, is a disease that affects a person’s brain and
behavior and leads to an inability to control the use of a legal or illegal drug or medication. Substances such as
alcohol, marijuana and nicotine also are considered drugs.
The most common roots of addiction are chronic stress, a history of trauma, mental illness and a family history
of addiction.
A person’s genes, the action of the drug, peer pressure, emotional distress, anxiety, depression, and
environmental stress can all be factors. Many who develop a substance use problem have depression,
attention deficit disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, or another mental problem.
For this assignment you are the treating clinician. Choose a position for dual diagnosis treatment, for example,
do you treat the mental illness as the primary disorder or do you treat the substance addiction as the primary
disorder?