Hi, this is steve and thank you for joining me for this month's podcast for believing Big change. I can be found at www dot Believe in Big Change dot com This month, we're going to talk about something that is quite complex in the treatment and recovery communities. We're gonna talk about co occurring disorders or also referred to as dual diagnosis. It's basically defined as a person that has one or more substance abuse disorder, an addiction and one or more mental health disorder, a mental health challenge or illness. And unfortunately there are those that are out there that are even less fortunate that are also homeless. That obviously is a really, really tough go of it. And I've touched on that in previous blogs as well as previous podcast. When you think about someone that is really struggling, it could be addiction again, it could be both or all three. You just have to ask yourself the question, would I want to live this way? I think the answer is very clear. The answer is no. Some people actually believe that are those that are out on the streets struggling with multiple conditions that would prefer the live on the streets. And to some minor extent that could be true because some people, this is pretty much all they've ever known. They've given up hope and they're just in a complete state of suffering and pain at that point, all we can really do is remind them that we're still here for them, that we care for them. We're not going away and pray for them. So what we're gonna talk about today is a little bit of what is common amongst these disorders. When you think about this in terms of how people come about these disorders, There's quite a number of commonalities. It can be hereditary, subject to a person can be subject to a genetic predisposition born with enough of the right genes that usually applies to over 50% of the people that fall prey to this. It can be the environment as we know, the world is a very stressful environment for some, there's a lot of chaos, trauma. Most people have experienced at least one form of trauma in their lives. Going back to childhood again. At least one form that could be a catastrophic event. Loss of a loved one unfortunately could mean violence, domestic violence, physical violence, sexual crimes. Um, a lot of trauma and tragedy out there that people can be uh subjected to, and again, they can be born with it. So, before you want to ask a question to somebody, what's wrong with you, I can't figure you out. I'm trying to help you again, There is no fix. The only solution for any of these is to treat it day by day, it's not curable, but it is treatable. Takes a lot of support. A lot of understanding tolerance, acceptance. So what's interesting is, is when people come to treatment and now over half of people that come to treatment are treated for dual diagnosis. Again, that's a tough go of it. And again, some are homeless and they've hit all three people can come in and have a substance use disorder. It could be drugs, alcohol and they could show the almost the exact same symptoms of someone with a mental health disorder, let's use, for example, uh bipolar, they can come in showing mania having manic episodes, they can come in depressed, they can have sub psychosis, uh and general anxiety disorder, and it's hard to tell the difference. Sometimes a period of abstinence and these symptoms can go away, or a person can be inflicted with a mental health disorder and turn to drugs and or alcohol to do the same thing that your garden variety addict would do to regulate their emotions, to cope with life, to numb out, to escape, to relieve stress, just to try and cope and deal with everyday life, like the rest of us. What's important is what they say is to try and treat both of them at the same time again, and not not an easy one to figure out and get the proper diagnosis again, treating them both at the same time is what's always best many people that have mental health disorders um are born with it. They're born with the genes just like an addict and an alcoholic. Um what I believe, what we're gonna talk about today, where there is a common thread or connection between all three of these is shame. You've heard me talk about it and write about it before we bring a lot of shame with us. That is our baggage, that is at the root. Cause besides the fact we may be born with this or exposed to it have the genetic predisposition. Um, we shame ourselves a lot. We don't think we're good enough. We don't understand what's wrong with us. We inflict a lot of guilt and shame because of the way we respond and react to people. We may lash out. It may surprise people again, we don't think we're good enough and we just don't understand what is wrong with us. And again, some turn to drugs and alcohol in addition to their mental health challenge as well as those that are on the street. So you can see it's very complex and there's a lot that goes to trying to get these people the proper diagnosis. So good thought again, is to try to listen, see if there's ways you can identify by educating yourself, talking to a professional, maybe attending a support group meeting. You might be surprised in terms of what you will discover. There's a lot of empathy, tolerance, compassion, patience, pretty good qualities to have. You could just go in there as an innocent listener and just observe. It's only about an hour, but before you want to try and fix things again, These things are not curable, but they are treatable day by day. People with mental health as well as substance use disorder, not only have to deal with the addiction, they have to get the right treatment, the right therapy and sometimes the right medication to balance their brain chemistry out so they can function like many of us can take for granted on a day by day basis. So the work is cut out for them once properly diagnosed and sometimes that can take decades to figure out and there's a lot of heartache on the recipient side as well as on their side. Again, we inflict ourselves with a lot of guilt and shame, don't understand what's wrong with us and why we do and say the things that we do. So again, very complex for those of you that might be listening that might say, hey, some of this with these symptoms might apply to me whether it's addiction or mental health, this is going to be hard for you to hear. But it's something that I had to work on and I see many of my friends that are in recovery and people that I saw in treatment, people that I've gotten to know through the support community recovery community is that we have to stop playing the victim. You were most likely wronged have gone through a lot of stress and trauma in your life, been subject to a very difficult environment. But what you do is you have an opportunity to seek help to not play the victim card. You know what they say, Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional. You can stop the suffering and that's what I had to do do. I feel I've been wrong in my past in my life. Yes. Was it justified? Yes, but I don't have to go on suffering forever and ever. I can start to take back my power and take control of my life and start to control my thoughts, my feelings and how I react or act when I take action. And a lot of times decisive action. It sounds so simple, but it's not practiced by people in their everyday lives as we see all the intolerance, the hatred, the lack of empathy, the lack of compassion. We can just turn to politics and take a look at what's playing out there and you know that's as far as I'm gonna go on that one. Um, so a lot of factors come in, you most likely were a victim of poor circumstances and poor treatment, but you can take your power back and again, it's very empowering. You can take control of your life. I never thought I could control my thoughts in my feelings. Um they come in but I can hit the pause button. I don't have to assume I don't have to take things personally. Sometimes that requires me to go through a grateful list uh in a minimum once a day, sometimes multiple times throughout the day. And when I'm thoroughly honest about that, I realize I come up on the, on the positive end. Everything is a net positive when I net things out at any given point in the day. I wrote about that in this month's blog about taking things personally, which I did um for decades and it was almost the cause of my demise, meaning my death, it contributed to it because I turned to alcohol to deal with these emotions and to cope to wear the mask. As they say, I didn't know what else to do. That's how I coped until I couldn't do it any longer and eventually thank goodness I decided to get some help. I have friends that um, I know from treatment I know in the recovery community that have mental health challenges and um, we share this in common the shame that we inflict on ourselves. Many of them believe whether it's addiction or mental health or both, that the world is better off without us, unfortunate for whatever reason, I didn't get that far, but I know many that have and have attempted and some that unfortunately have been successful and again, it's a very tragic story and they just don't know what else to do. They feel hopeless, they feel lost. Again, they don't know what is wrong with them. So sometimes the best you can do is just be reassuring, try to listen, try to educate yourself and if you have to detach with love and love and pray for them from afar, that's okay too because it's important that we all protect ourselves and take care of ourselves first and foremost. Otherwise we're really not of service to others. So we have to be at our best first and foremost. So you know, I've talked to some of these people and I'll just take bipolar for example, uh can be very difficult and challenging to figure out, especially if you don't know anything about it. But they have these episodes where they're high energy, they're very creative, they can get a lot of work done in a very short period of time and those spurts can happen for days and maybe even a couple of weeks and then what they do is what they call they crash, they crash hard, they're depressed, they feel lost, they feel guilt and shame and remorse and although they start to have an idea of what's going on with them and may have started to educate themselves and may have tried some form of treatment or therapy, they unfortunately reached the conclusion that it's not going to get any better. It can only get worse and they make the decision that the world is better off without them. That just made me choke up a little bit because they're worth it. People in recovery that I've met and have the pleasure of meeting or some of the most talented, gifted, thoughtful, sensitive, compassionate people that I know unfortunately that gets hidden by the shame, which a lot of time can be, lot of the time can be unresolved anger, which can lead to resentments and more shame because we feel that way and to depression, to substance abuse and that's the cycle that we fall into. These people need our understanding, our forgiveness as they too want understanding and they too want to forgive. There isn't any of us out there that doesn't need to be forgiven from time to time and some on a regular basis and I've been there many times myself. So I think it's really important again to just try and educate yourself to try and identify with them and give them a chance and if you have to do it from afar that's understandable, but just letting them know that you're still there for them in some way, shape or form and encouraging them to get help and that you're not gonna go away and that you'll be there will go a long ways and maybe because it's in our cells, it's in our blood, as they say, there's that survival, that fight instinct that even the person that's on the streets, homeless substance abuse mental health is really pretty much said, you know what if I die, that's not a bad thing, some might even try to overdose and again take their life, which is a form of it uh, in some way, shape or form, but you just never know. And sometimes unfortunately, or fortunately some people find hope because they see a loved one passed because of these very challenging and complicated diseases. So I hope that's helpful. It was a mouthful and I know it's a lot to take in, feel free to reach out to me on the site. It believe in big change. If you have any questions or concerns, I'm here for you and again, you're worth it. Your loved ones are worth it. We all matter and we're all good enough and I love you. God bless.