prairie

I've been doing A Lot of reading and trying to soak as much of it in as I can. Between here and other stuff online and what appears to be the ever growing library at home I'm a little overwhelmed. There is soooo much info out there.

Today is day 3 clean for my AH, not that I'm counting or anything. I've never seen him "detox" before and I'm trying to figure out what is him and what is his PTSD. What I would like to know is how do you deal with an addict who also has a psychiatric disorder. I'm trying to decifer through the lines but they are so blurred right now. Or maybe it's just the fog that I have found myself in.

He is so angry today and I don't know if it's the lack of drugs in his system and reality again smacks him in the forehead or if it's something else. Sometimes I'd like to just smack him in the forehead. Wow there are other people in the world too you know.

I don't know if any of this made sense, I'm all over the place with my emotions today and trying to explain what I need is complicated.

Afraid2Succeed

Hi, you were describing a "dual-diagnosis" which is fairly common in treatment centers. I don't know the statistics, but I would guess a lot of addicts could be considered "dual-diagnosis", whether it is BiPolar, OCD, GAD, etc.

Also, with a lot of addictions come co-morbidity, or two diseases that occur together. With some meth addicts, depression usually accompanies the addiction.

I would leave the treatment plan to professionals, as its hard to discern where one disorder ends and the other begins.

rahsue

He is going to be up and down (mostly down) for a few days at least because of detoxing so don't take anything to heart if you can help it. Go to a movie or visit a friend if you can.
I agree with afraid addicts seem to have two diseases one is the addiction and the other could be depression, anxiety ect..
good luck

prairie

Thx. I think I'm going to talk with one of his counsellors about this. He takes meds for his depression, for his anxiety, and anti-psycotics for the PTSD. Don't really know how coke affects with those meds medically.

He's better tonight and much more agreeable to deal with.

sinclair

My AH is also dual diagnosis (vicodin and bi-polar). He has been home for one year and it has been a nightmare. I thought after he was "sober" that he would begin to realize what he had done and start to make amends. Nope, more rude and obnoxious as ever. If I had to do it over, I would not have let him move back in until he had 6 mos to a year under his belt of recovery on his own. It is so easy to get caught up in his anger, etc. and you end up excusing the bad behaviour because "it is part of recovery" or it is "ptsd" or whatever. and spending too much time on the internet to "figure out" his behaviour. Well guess what the answer is the same "figure out what your boundaries are and stick to it - then it doesn't matter what the cause of his anger is - if your boundary is not to be yelled at and he yells then put your consequence into action. It really doesn't matter if he is angry because of ptsd, ocd, just a jerk, whatever - I just stick to my boundary. If he yells at me I say time out and if he doesn't stop I leave. Know this gets real old real fast especially having to get all of the kids together. It is very disruptive when I have to leave. Now he pretty much leaves and still hasn't learned that I am serious. Best of luck to you and many hugs.

greeteachday

Glad things are better. Early recovery is a huge roller coaster ride and he is liable to be all over the place. When my daughter was taking meds for bipolar and went back out, the meds were pretty darn ineffective. I don't know if that is true for all kinds of drugs, but I would imagine more often than not.

I hope he finds support with other addicts in recovery and that you keep coming here for support and try some Alanon or Naranon meetings. Rember, just like you can not control his addiction, you can't babysit him and control his recovery. Hugs.