Mental Health and Recovery from Addiction

The very first time I heard I had issues with depression and anxiety was when I went to treatment for drugs and alcohol. Prior to this I had no real of knowledge mental health disorders. I remember my mom having breakdowns when I was a kid but what I didn't know was is she was in crisis from her own issues with depression and anxiety. It wasn't until I was an adult in my late 20's that I learned my grandfather was distant a lot of times because of depression. It wasn't because he didn't care or didn't like us, it was more he was struggling with depression. I found my biological father at 29 and through conversations with him learned that depression was something he struggled with. 

It is recommended that you wait a little bit after first getting in recovery before going and getting an evaluation for mental health disorders. Some believe that doing this will give you time to clear your body of all substances and sort of re-boot. Some things you thought might have been mental health disorders might have just been due to alcohol and drug use.  I assert that you shouldn't wait and many treatment centers now have mental health professionals on staff to ensure early care is given.

I got my first psych eval after my second time going to treatment for addiction and having been in recovery for almost a year. I was struggling massively with depression and anxiety. I was 100% doing all the things one should do to stay away from drugs and alcohol and I was doing things on my own to try to maintain. I was staying busy with work and school, exercising, paying attention to what I ate and how much caffeine I consumed, and I had a strong support system. Yet, I was still have major issues with both depression and anxiety. 

It was that first psych eval in 1997 that I felt some sense of relief to hear I wasn't crazy at all......I was suffering from major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety, PTSD, and a bereavement disorder. Now, I did think....wow, that's a lot!  But, with help from the psychiatrist, my counselor, and others in my circle, I was able to see that there wasn't something inherently wrong with me and all of this could be treated so my life could continue to improve. 

I had given up drugs and alcohol and some basic things and more had improved for sure. I stopped committing crimes, stopped going to jail, I was able to maintain employment, I had fully reengaged with my son and was in his life 100%. All of those things were notable changes since I entered a life in recovery.

Even with those successes my mental health was nearly out of control. I was thankful I was able to get some answers through that psych eval and come up with a plan to improve my mental health. I was seeing a counselor, started taking medications, and doing all the other things one can do on their own to improve their mental health.......exercise, having a strong support system, educating myself on mental health, and having that desire to be better in this area. 

You never forget your first psych eval.....getting the results is both a relief and scary all at once. Fortunate for me I have been able to gain access to resources needed since that time years ago to improve in all of my areas that I once struggled with at high levels. I always say....recovery is not a linear path. This is true for recovery from substance use disorders and is also true for mental health disorders. If I look at the trajectory I have experienced from 1997 to today my mental health has had drastic improvement. With that known, there it has also ebbed and flowed throughout. Just in the last year I decided to reengage with a counselor and talk to my doctor about medication for anxiety. While there is always part of me that can struggle asking for help, I have learned that asking for help is better than suffering in isolation. 

For many people who are in recovery from a substance use disorder we also have, or do, struggle with mental health disorders. It is something that we learn we need to treat much like we have with our addiction. We do this through using all the tools at our disposal to improve our lives in all ways.