TomsGirl

My AH has a "dual diagnosis" meaning he suffers from a mental illness (clinical depression) and alcohol addiction. In his case the depression symptoms appeared first and he found that heavy drinking made those symptoms "go away" or at least numbed him to them. So he drank everyday. Then one day, maybe he was having a good day and felt less blue, he found that even though he was happy if he didn't drink he didn't feel so good physically. His hands were shakey, he felt sort of edgey. So he takes a drink and voila! Those odd physical feelings went away. He has now officially crossed the threshold of alcohol addiction.

Now, one condition starts to feed off the other. He's feeling depressed, so he drinks. In a lucid moment he realizes that he's tied to the bottle and that thought makes him depressed, so he drinks. It becomes a viscious cycle and if he ever has any desire to seriously recover both conditions must be recognized, treated, and controlled. All prescriptions for anti-depressants say "Don't take with alcohol". That's because they don't work with alcohol. Might as well take sugar pills if drink with them as they won't do anything for you.

The therapy/counseling my AH got after his second suicide attempt in June of '04 did nothing for him as they only concentrated on the mental illness. He was drinking again within 2 weeks of his hospital discharge so all those lovely AD pills he was talking and all that therapy/counseling was worthless! And because he was trying to convince all involved that he had quit drinking he made the switch from beer to vodka. Easier to hide and a few chugs of straight 80 proof vodka gets you to where you want to be a hell of a lot faster than beer!

Fast forward to this year, early November. Another suicide attempt. Back in the hospital. This time around I insisted that BOTH conditions be properly treated and I backed up my insistance by saying his current condition (physically and mentally) was a result of the ineffective treatment plan that was devised for him last time around.

My point for posting this you might ask? My point is that a large portion of society still has a "thing" about mental illness and many people still think it's something you can just "snap out" of. Many A's suffer from mental illness but they fear the stigma so they deny it exists. I believe some A's that attempt recovery fail at it time and time again because some form of mental illness is also present but going unoticed and untreated. It's sort of funny, in a sad sort of way, that to some people the whole world knowing that you're an A is ok but having a mental illness - "Oh my! What will the neighbors think!" I can talk my head off about my husband's addiction to some people and they're very supportive but if I then bring up the suicide they get totally creeped out and I have to shut up. When someone tells you point blank that you're gonna die soon if you keep drinking and you don't try and stop because you don't care then doesn't the drinking sort of become a form of passive suicide?

Of course not all addicts suffer from mental illness and not all people with mental illness become addicts. But to properly help those that do have both issues people have to open their eyes and their minds to see the whole picture. If they don't then recovery for some A's will sadly, always remain an ellusive dream.

Thanks, Janet