Dual diagnosis - How hard was this for you?

Advice & Questions
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Have any of you here been dual diagnosed? How does your mental health issues affected your sobriety and staying sober? I have just started my journey on being sober again. Wondering if anyone’s mental illness has made it more difficult to stay sober? I had a few different periods of usage with different time frames of use. When I first started using back in 1995 I didn’t get completely clean until 2000. Remained clean until 2015 and mistakenly started again and continued until September 2016. Remained sober for 9 months and then caved after an “itch” and instantly was hooked again. I’m on day one again. Do you think you find the road harder being an addict with mental illness? I get depressed and then use because I think it will help me at the time and then as my usage continues my mental state deteriorates even worse and I turn into an emotional basket case. Anyone else have or had the same issues? What did you do to keep sober? Any advice will. E accepted. Thank you

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I don’t really have any significant mental health issues but fun what I have read on here one a person is sooner for a decent amount of time they have them found it easier to manage they’re mental health issues and get on the correct type and dose of medication.
I will tag James @ifs as he always has excellent things to say regarding these matters, I’m not sure if he had personal experience. I’m sure they I’d he hayd time then he will respond.
Welcome to the forum @Lisha_Corona, in the meantime you could try using the Search function above to find relevant threads, you just click on the magnifying glass icon in the top right. :+1::+1:t2::grin::slightly_smiling_face:

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BPD, anxiety, ADHD combo here along with drinking. Mental health has definitely played a big part in my battle with addiction.

  • I absolutely have to stay sober to keep improving my mental health. I’ve worked on my mental health for years, but when I drank at the same time, I wasn’t improving at all, and in fact often backsliding. And I didn’t even realize how much because my relationship with alcohol clouded everything.
  • I absolutely have to address my mental health if I want to stay sober. I drank to cope with feelings I didn’t know how to (or didn’t want to) handle otherwise. But you can’t just stop drinking/using and pretend that deals with your feelings. Healthy coping and emotional regulation skills are needed to fill in the gap.

I’ll also quote something I posted the other day on mental health. I have more details on what’s in here if you want, I just tried to keep it economical so as not to write a book on it :stuck_out_tongue:

Thanks @anon13078412 for tagging me. I love to help out, but I don’t always get around to all the threads so I miss stuff.

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90 days sober and life is good!
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Awesome post James, thank you. I believe this will help more people than you’d think. I have similar experiences with anxiety as to what you’ve talked about here on TS and I also utilise a lot of the above to help me manage and allow a life of joy, acceptance and enthusiasm. These are the 3 modalities of life that Eckhart Tolle talks about in his book A New Earth. This book changed my life. I think one point you listed that I resonate with very dearly is that of courage. Putting yourself in uncomfortable situations at times and choosing NOT to isolate yourself. The more we be brave the more brave we become.

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Thanks for sharing

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