Treating addiction when mental health problems are also present can be like playing whack-a-mole: You address one problem and another one escalates. And it’s never easy to figure out which symptom comes from which problem. Is the patient depressed because of their addiction? Or addicted because they are depressed?
Scott McMillin discusses some of the basics of dealing with this challenge, and helping people with co-occurring disorders avoid the risk of relapse:
