There are a number of important factors that have to be examined with any dual diagnosis. This type of diagnosis is used if you have some form of mental illness along with some type of substance abuse. This can be someone who is bipolar and who abuses alcohol to try and manage their mental illness. It is very common to find substance abuse and mental illness in the same patient, and these two conditions often go together. The first factor that needs to be looked at is what the specific symptoms are. This will help diagnose the mental illness component so that both issues can be effectively treated. If only half of the problem is resolved you will eventually end up right back where you started and suffer a relapse.
Once the proper dual diagnosis has been made, one that identifies both the substance abuse and the mental illness, then the next factor is the right treatment program for your specific treatment needs. There are great programs that specialize in dual diagnosis treatment, but there are also some which do not have the knowledge and resources available to treat these types of cases. Do you have health insurance? If so will it cover the program that you have chosen? If not can you afford to pay the cost? These are important questions to ask. Some of the most effective treatment programs can run tens of thousands of dollars a month. On the other hand just because a program costs this much that does not make it the most effective.
