While I understand that co-occurring mental disorders are common in addicts, and that addicts often use as a means of self-medication, I join the chorus of those skeptical of mental health diagnoses made for the first time in the rehab facility. It is amazing to me how many addicts in treatment are told for the first time that they are bipolar. SO many!! How can anyone make a competent diagnosis when a person's brain, endorphin levels, etc., are completely haywire due to recent drug use? Or diagnoses of severe anxiety or depression. No kidding! Hard to feel "normal" when your body is not producing any of those "feel good" chemicals naturally because it's shut down production in response to regular flooding with the DOC.
Seems to me that there is a real chicken-or-the-egg conundrum with mental health diagnoses in rehab. Are they REALLY bipolar, or is this a reaction to years of substance abuse?