Drug Rehab Centers and Mental Health Facilities

The more we learn about addiction, it is increasingly clear that mental health and addiction interact in significant ways. Drug rehab centers and mental health facilities are not necessarily mutually exclusive. A comprehensive recovery involves physical health and mental health, which is something any effective center will understand. At Mountain View Recovery, substance abuse disorders are the primary diagnosis that we treat. We do understand though that mental health is a significant part of addiction and recovery. Co-occurring disorders, when someone suffers from addiction and a mental disorder, are common and something we can treat.

Currently, we’re able to treat clients with:

• Depression
• Bipolar Disorder (treated)
• Treated Schizoaffective
• Anxiety/Personality Disorders
• Other Axis II Disorders

In order to effectively treat co-occurring disorders, it’s important for us to understand a person’s background as fully as possible. This means understanding their genetic history and the various environmental factors that impacted them as they grew up. Addiction is complex and unique to each person. Individualized treatment is essential to an effective treatment plan. Thus, it’s important that we work with individuals to understand as much as possible about how their background has impacted their mental health and addiction.

Genetics, Environment, And Mental Health

There are countless factors behind what affects someone’s mental health. Two significant aspects include genetics and environment. Someone’s environment includes their family, social life, work, and culture among other possibilities. This will vary widely for different people. In order to develop thorough and effective treatment plans, it’s important that we fully understand each patient’s history.

With family, there’s the possibility a person was adopted, in foster care, or another situation where they rarely lived with their immediate blood relatives. Whatever the case, it is still helpful to look at genetics and understand how that is impacting a person today. If someone is unable to provide any familial genetic history, that is okay and there are still ways to look at how genetics are impacting them.

A person’s environment impacts their potential for mental health problems in a variety of ways:

• Work: Stress from work is a problem for many people. This includes interpersonal relationships at work, high-pressure expectations, jobs that are stressful no matter what, and having time cut or being fired.
• Economic: There is clear evidence that economic downturn negatively impacts mental health.
• Culture: A shared set of beliefs, norms, and values. This impacts people’s ability to address mental health or illness, whether they seek treatment, or if treatment is even easily available.
• Social: A social life impacts mental health; this may be a robust social life, a lack of one, or even a social life that includes negative influences.

Genetic and environmental factors do not tell for certain if someone will have a mental illness. However, they do provide insight into the potential for developing mental health disorders. Family environment and genetics can mix in a variety of ways to impact one’s mental health. Someone could grow up in a dysfunctional family with or without a genetic predisposition for mental illness; alternatively they could grow up in a well-adjusted family that still has a higher risk for certain mental illnesses. It’s possible for any mix of these situations to impact a person’s mental health.