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Depression Treatment Center in New Jersey
Dual Diagnosis: Substance Use and Depression Disorders
We know that feeling: Getting out of bed takes effort beyond comprehension. The oversleeping. Discarded takeout boxes. Ignoring loved ones.
But that’s not the worst of it. The addiction comes next. The cravings swirl around us, and pretty soon, it seems like the only thing in the world we could conceive of doing is feeding our addiction. If you choose to feed the addiction, then the cycle starts all over again.
When depression and substance abuse are co-occurring disorders, they can exacerbate each other. One leads to another in a vicious cycle it’s hard to escape from.
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If you or a loved one is ready to get help but finances are holding you back, give us a call. We can work with your health insurance provider.
Table of Contents
Living With Depression
For some, depression feels like having sandbags strapped to your arms and legs and then being expected to act “normally.” Everything is harder.
Depression is like falling down a black hole where you can’t feel anything, and you don’t know how to get out. It’s infuriating. There are things you know are supposed to bring you joy, but you just feel empty. And, since you know you are “supposed” to enjoy them (kids, job, hobbies) but aren’t enjoying them, you feel extra sad.
Sometimes, it’s the lack of emotions that defines depression.
Depression can be a creeping numbness that slowly spreads until you don’t feel comfortable in your own body and or if your body itself seems unreal. You might wake up one day and not even recognize yourself. You might want to go back to sleep and not wake up because everything is just too hard.
Symptoms and Diagnosis of Depression
According to the DSM-V, if you’ve been experiencing these symptoms most of the day, every day, for at least two weeks, then you may have a clinical diagnosis of depression[1]:
- Constantly feeling sad, anxious, or empty
- Giving up hope
- Getting easily frustrated or restless
- Convinced that you are a “nobody”
- Stop engaging in beloved hobbies
- Tiring easily
- More indecisive than usual
- Sleep disruptions
- Loss of weight
- Persistent pains, headaches, cramps, or digestive problems that do not have a clear physical cause and do not go away with treatment
- Suicidal ideations
Symptoms and Diagnosis of Substance Use Disorder
According to the DSM-V, if you’ve experienced 2 out of 11 of these symptoms during the last twelve months, then you may have a clinical diagnosis for substance use disorder[2]:
- Using more of a substance for a longer amount of time than intended.
- Failure to decrease frequency and/or potency of usage.
- Expenditure of resources (time, money, and energy) to both obtain and recover from using the substance.
- Painful cravings to use the substance again.
- Failure to make or meet personal or social obligations.
- Professional and interpersonal damage due to substance use.
- Substance use takes precedence over former hobbies.
- High-risk activities despite knowing the danger of substance use (like driving a car).
- Knowing the outcome, yet using the substance again.
- Tolerance
- Withdrawal
The Different Types of Depressive Disorders
Long-term, severe depression can make it challenging to maintain relationships, undertake demanding tasks, and even engage in healthy self-care.
The roots of clinical depression are frequently unknown. People who are suffering from clinical depression could feel depressed, defeated, run-down, or unmotivated without understanding why.
Working through depression may entice sufferers into unhealthy mechanisms for coping, such as addiction or self-harm. If you’re struggling, know that there are options for you. People who struggle with drug or alcohol addiction frequently also have depression. One can experience various types of depression, including:
- Bipolar Disorder
- Major Depressive Disorder
- Seasonal Affective Disorder
- Psychotic Depression
- Peripartum Depression (formerly postpartum)
- Depression
- Persistent Depressive Disorder
Depression and Substance Use Disorders
If you seek depression and substance abuse treatment but don’t have either diagnosis, you’ll need to wait until the substance has been eliminated from your system before getting a depression diagnosis.
Some of the symptoms of substance withdrawal (persistent pain and sleep disruptions) can resemble the symptoms of depression. If you are still exhibiting symptoms of depression after the substance has been eliminated from your system, then your physician can make the determinative call.
When depression and substance use present together, it may involve short periods of intense sociability, energy, and pleasure owing to drug use. When these periods subside, the user might isolate themselves away from loved ones and friends. They could feel depressed, heavy, and like they just want to go to sleep.
Not knowing how to break the cycle, they could take the substance again to feel like themselves. This cycle could repeat itself over and over.
Risk Factors of Depression and Substance Abuse
There isn’t one single cause that can be attributed to co-occurring depression and substance abuse. There are several factors, such as environment, genetics, and physiology, which influence these disorders:
- Stress, trauma, or poverty during childhood
- Low levels of serotonin or other neurotransmitters
- Brain structure
- Someone in your immediate family has depression
Depression and Addiction Statistics
29% of American adults have had a major episode of depression at least once in their life, and 17.8% of American adults are currently being treated for depression symptoms.[3]
Addiction is on the rise as well. In a one-year span from 2020 to 2021, drug overdose-related deaths jumped 14%.[4] In 2021, approximately 106,699 Americans died from overdosing on drugs. Over 75% of those who died from drug overdoses were due to opioids.
One piece of research found that 27% of patients who had been diagnosed with substance use disorder after abusing prescription drugs also had a co-occurring depression diagnosis.
Treating Depression and Drug Abuse
Depression and substance abuse therapies can help you gain a new perspective on the root causes of your behavior, reinvent dysfunctional coping mechanisms, and get on a trajectory toward permanent sobriety.
Depression and addiction recovery need to be addressed simultaneously for the best chance of success. There are so many different treatment options that could serve the interests of your depression and addiction recovery.
In addition to therapy, anyone suffering from substance use disorder may also be prescribed medication-assisted therapy (MAT). Pharmacotherapeutic assistance helps ease your withdrawal symptoms and rewire your brain to stop associating the substance with pleasure.
Instead, your brain will be unable to feel the euphoria and will feel pleasantly neutral. Alongside MAT, there are many therapies we offer that could meet your needs:
Evidence-based Traditional Therapy for Depression
Talking therapies like CBT and DBT are excellent for disrupting unhealthy thought patterns that lead to depression.
These are traditional 1:1 therapy sessions where a trained therapist will help you identify mental patterns that formerly supported your addictive behavior. These will be replaced or refashioned into objective, realistic thought patterns.
Evidence-based Alternative Therapy
Alternative therapies like yoga are an excellent way to begin the healing process for drug addiction. While yogic breathing improves the velocity of cerebrospinal fluid dynamics by 16-28%, another benefit of yoga is the acknowledgment of the spiritual aspect of recovery.[6]
Drug addiction destroys the connection between your body and mind. Yoga is where you accept your body for what it is and focus on re-establishing that visceral connection. Mindfulness is a tenant of yoga, and it can help reacquaint people with their bodies.
Absolute Awakenings Editorial Guidelines
At Absolute Awakenings, we take information integrity seriously. We have dedicated our resources to ensure that all content published to our blog is medically sound. As such, all content on our blog has been thoroughly reviewed by a doctorate level clinician such as a Medical Doctor, or Psy.D, so that you can trust all of the data we publish.
What We Treat
We Accept With Most Major Insurance
If you or a loved one is ready to get help but finances are holding you back, give us a call. We can work with your health insurance provider.
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Frequently Asked Questions About Depression and Addiction
Can depression make you sick?
Depression has no bacterial or viral component, but it can cause sufferers persistent distress that will eventually weaken their immune system.
If you aren’t experiencing a normal level of neurotransmitters such as dopamine or serotonin, you might feel hollow, empty, and sad. This combination of sensations could be construed as “feeling sick.”
Why depression happens
Depression happens when you aren’t experiencing a normal level of neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine. Some people are just genetically predisposed to lower levels of hormones. But, many drugs can stimulate our central nervous system to over-produce hormones.
If we get accustomed to the elevated level of hormones, that will become our new “normal.” When we inevitably have to descend back to normal hormone production levels, our brains will crave those elevated levels of hormones.
This can result in long-term damage to the pituitary gland and difficulty producing a healthy amount of hormones in the future.[7]
How depression affects relationships
Depression isolates sufferers. People who experience symptoms of depression report withdrawing from others. While the people closest to us can be our greatest source of support for a healthy lifestyle, depression tends to push them as far away as possible.
Sufferers are exhausted by their condition and don’t want to have to explain it to anybody, even if it’s their best friend.
It especially puts a strain on romantic relationships. Romantic partners accustomed to closeness and intimacy can be confused by the withdrawal of their partner and maybe even blame themselves. This can create more and more distance between the two of them, and unfortunately, sometimes the distance becomes so great there is no relationship left.
Sources
[1] U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (n.d.). Depression. National Institute of Mental Health. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/depression
[2] Substance use disorder – statpearls – NCBI bookshelf. (n.d.). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK570642/
[3] Witters, D. (2023, June 27). U.S. depression rates reach new highs. Gallup.com. https://news.gallup.com/poll/505745/depression-rates-reach-new-highs.aspx
[4] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2023, August 22). Drug overdose deaths. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/deaths/index.html
[5] Goldner EM;Lusted A;Roerecke M;Rehm J;Fischer B; (n.d.). Prevalence of axis-1 psychiatric (with focus on depression and anxiety) disorder and symptomatology among non-medical prescription opioid users in substance use treatment: Systematic review and meta-analyses. Addictive behaviors. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24333033/
[6] U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (n.d.). Yogic breathing affects cerebrospinal fluid dynamics during breathing practice. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. https://www.nccih.nih.gov/research/research-results/yogic-breathing-affects-cerebrospinal-fluid-dynamics-during-breathing-practice
[7] Fleseriu, M. (2017, January 18). Drugs and pituitary function. Oregon Health & Science University. https://ohsu.elsevierpure.com/en/publications/drugs-and-pituitary-function
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