Help in NW Indiana for Son Who’s Depressed and Self Medicates?
Question by dede: Help in NW Indiana for son who’s depressed and self medicates?
Is there any other place in NW IN that has a good dual diagnosis program? He has been clean for four months but is depressed and ready to relaspe.(cocaine and/or heroin was what he used to self medicate.)Has low self-esteem, doesn’t care about anything,carries alot of guilt, and shame for things he’s done to self medicate. Newlywed since May/wonderful girl, new father to a baby girl/October and has a really good job that he likes in sales. Everything to be greatful 4-she/we(family) have alot of trust issues with him as he used to take his checks from previous jobs and go on binges or steal from us. His father is an alcoholic/drug addict. I divorced him when he was 9. He has a loving a and supportive family and a step father that has been there 4 him 4 9 yrs. My son is 25. Has been through alot of jobs until he found this one. Haven’t been able to find a doctor to treat his depression, they always address the substance abuse and not the depression. Need help.
Best answer:
Answer by bitsy
my nephew is the same way, best thing to do is fast and pray,it’s hard for me to fast long cause I need to eat but if you can go without eating,do it jesus will help but he needs to repent if he understands his sin against GOD noone else, it hurts but satans on a big destruction he has not much time ,so he’s destroying alot of teens and young adults get into proverbs of the bible for him keep praying
Answer by Lisa P
First see a Psychiatrist, then ask for a referral for therapy/counselling, the doctor will know what types of treatment are in your area. (medication is vital but so is therapy). Some places have public clinics which are free, depends if you have health insurance too. I have suffered from Borderline personality Disorder & Bipolar with Drug Addiction for 25 years, I have relapsed so many times but I’m finally on the right track & am in control of my life. I had a lot of contributing factors in my life experiences which I needed to understand & deal with. I was sexually abused at 5 & 6, all through my childhood I was teased, bullied, hit, ridiculed, criticised etc & then gang raped at 17, then a couple of months later abducted at knife point & raped again, assaulted, robbed, used & abused, the list goes on. I became a drug addict & I was a very angry & rebellious person, self-harming & many suicide attempts, in & out of the psych ward, rehabs, counselling-I tried everything to get my life back on track. They say CBT therapy is best (Cognitive Behaviour therapy) & I tried this for 5 years & it helped considerably. However, when I started this new therapy called ACT (Acceptance & Commitment Therapy), my life changed. A combination of these therapies, which I highly recommend is DBT (Dialectical Behaviour Therapy). I stopped taking drugs & I haven’t been back to the psych ward since. I had 65 admissions in a 5 year period, I’ve not had 1 admission in over a year now since I started ACT therapy. I participated in a group therapy once a week for 6 months (free) & also an individual therapy session once a week for 9 months ($ 15 an hour)(I’m in Australia). I learnt so much about understanding my thoughts, feelings, & emotions & that I may not be able to control these but I can control how I behave in response to my thoughts, feelings & emotions. They teach many methods to enable you to deal with the most unpleasant emotions & feelings, yet still react & behave in an acceptable way. This dramatically helps with improving your self-esteem & relationships too. I went from drug addict/basket case to a fully functioning, respected citizen who is now studying Drug & Alcohol Counselling & running support groups myself now, I’ve become a role model- my life has improved dramatically!! Finding a good Counsellor is kind of like finding a new friend, you’ve got to see if you get on & it doesn’t always work out. Keep looking until you find someone you click with. Go for it! Support your son through therapy, he will learn so much & it will be a life changing experience, just remember it takes time to change & it won’t happen overnight but it’s important to keep practicing everything you’re taught & you’ll be amazed at the results. Symptoms will not just go away by themselves, therapy is needed, keep searching until you find something that suits you. You might find a support group helpful too. AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) doesn’t work for a lot of people, the 12 step program & putting your faith in a ‘higher power’ doesn’t click with everyone. There is a newer approach, check out www.smartrecovery.org which is a self-help support group dealing with all kinds of addictive behaviours, the site has a lot of information, support, chat rooms & on-line meetings. SMART (Self-Management And Recovery Training) also run community face to face meetings all over the world too. It was developed as an alternative approach to the 12 step program. It is based on the principles of scientific knowledge & reasoning using CBT-Therapy. This group helped me turn my life around, I now help run groups & am studying to be a Drug & Alcohol Counsellor. 90% of our group have problems with alcohol & are all there because AA didn’t work for them. Instead of listening to everyone take turns at telling their life story (if you’ve heard one you’ve heard them all), it’s very negative & gets a bit monotonous after a while & very intimidating for some to stand up & talk in front of a group (Sorry don’t mean to bag out AA, this is just my personal opinion). SMART is an open friendly, confidential, non-judgmental, supportive discussion group that deals with solving present problems. Members exchange positive & negative experiences in order to learn from each other & give advice & guidance according to personal experience. It has 4 main areas. 1 Dealing with urges & cravings. 2 Problem solving. 3 Lifestyle balance & 4. Maintaining motivation to abstain. It’s a fantastic program which is relatively new & growing rapidly & deserves much more publicity & recognition than it gets. I hope this information & my recommendations are helpful. Having support is a major help too.
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