The Relationship Between Bipolar Disorder and Meth Addiction
For individuals struggling with bipolar disorder and meth use, life can feel unpredictable. One moment you’re like a bird, soaring high and feeling like nothing can touch you. The next, you find yourself laid out on the ground, unable to get up as crippling depression takes away your will to move.
When you come crashing down, you might do anything to feel just a little bit functional. This includes self-medication through meth use. Unfortunately, when you have bipolar disorder, meth is only a temporary boost for your mood. Before too long, you’ll find yourself struggling again, perhaps worse than you were the first time.
The best option for treating manic and depressive episodes is having proper support, and you’ll find that at Ingrained Recovery. Keep reading to learn more about the link between addiction, bipolar disorder, and stimulant abuse, and where to turn for help once you’re ready to heal.
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Understanding Bipolar Disorder and Its Symptoms
Often, “mood swings” are the first thing that people hear when you talk about bipolar disorder. Someone who’s never lived with it doesn’t understand the harsh realities of the disorder and how out of control you feel as you plummet from elated highs to deep depression.
Bipolar symptoms aren’t just inconvenient, they are incredibly hard to live with. They affect your ability to get along with others, have healthy relationships, and hold a steady job. Without treatment, constant cycling between manic and depressive symptoms can leave you feeling desperate for some relief.
Key Differences Between Bipolar I and Bipolar II
While both Bipolar I and Bipolar II have mood cycles, manic periods associated with Bipolar I mood disorder are worse. Your inhibitions are incredibly low, you’re more likely to take risks, and some people experience delusions or hallucinations.
People with Bipolar II disorder experience hypomania, which is a manic episode that is still disruptive, but not quite as severe. They also experience longer-lasting depression. With either disorder, depressive episodes can be so severe that you need to be hospitalized to keep you safe.
The Link Between Substance Use Disorders and Bipolar
When you struggle with bipolar disorder, you might spend time looking for an escape. You can feel desperate, whether you’re trying to bring yourself up from the lows or manage mania to bring yourself down to earth. Sometimes, this need to feel better leads to trying drugs or alcohol to “take the edge off”.
Many people struggle with co-occurring bipolar disorder and substance abuse. There is even evidence that supports this mood disorder as being the most likely to cause co-occurring addiction.
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Meth Use to Self-Medicate Bipolar Depression
As a self-medication for bipolar disorder, meth use might seem like the answer to pull yourself out of a deep depression. You might be trying to shake off fatigue, get yourself ready for the day, or just have a good time.
The problem with this is the inevitable crash that follows. If you were already in a depressive state, you may get significantly worse. And, if you weren’t, then the crash that follows can trigger one. Over time, you start to become reliant on methamphetamine to feel normal. That’s where substance abuse becomes addiction.
Meth is not the only type of substance abuse someone with bipolar might struggle with. During hyper or hypomanic episodes, you might try marijuana, alcohol, or opioids to bring yourself down or get a good night’s sleep. Polysubstance abuse is also common in people who have bipolar, meaning you become dependent on more than one substance to make you feel “normal”.
From Hypomanic Episodes to Full-Blown Mania
When you’re coming out of a depression, hypomania might not feel so bad. You feel elevated, motivated, and even happy. But when you add meth to the mix, hypomania gets much worse. You might act irrationally or aggressively, with little thought to how you are affecting the people around you.
How Meth Can Make Your Manic Episode Worse
When you add meth to the bipolar cycle, your brain’s reward system is so overstimulated that it pushes mania to the next level. You might act out violently or become paranoid, becoming dangerous to the people you love. It’s possible to have a full mental break from reality, to the point you don’t even recognize yourself anymore.
A Mood Boost During Depressive Episodes
Meth floods your brain with chemicals that make you feel good, promising instant mental stimulation and euphoria. Unfortunately, as soon as the high wears off, you’ll find yourself craving that feeling.
You’ll also find yourself in a worse depressive state than before. It becomes a dangerous pattern that is hard to control. Fortunately, with support from Ingrained Recovery, you’ll be able to break these patterns and feel more stable.
How Meth Use Makes Depressive Episodes Worse
Those same chemicals that make you feel good when using methamphetamine play a huge role in regulating your mood. After using meth, however, these chemicals are all used up. It takes time for your brain to make more, and while you are waiting, depression is much worse than before. This makes it hard to resist the urge to use methamphetamine, hoping for a sense of temporary relief.
Dual Diagnosis Treatment That Works
Some clinics claim to treat co-occurring disorders, but there’s not really mental health support. You might go through detox, get medication to help handle mood swings or be given a handful of coping skills, but these alone don’t offer a path to total recovery. For that, you need to be able to understand bipolar and how it’s impacted your life. Getting in touch with yourself is much easier on our secluded campus.
At Ingrained Recovery, we do much more than diagnose bipolar disorder and prescribe some medications. Your treatment starts with a thorough assessment so we can understand your symptoms. This helps with identifying the type of bipolar you struggle with, as well as any co-occurring psychiatric disorders.
By identifying what struggles you have with mental health, the path to healing from substance abuse and co-occurring bipolar disorder becomes much clearer. It is possible to learn to manage bipolar and stop the cycle of meth use. Let us show you how.
Medical Detox for Drug Abuse Withdrawal Symptoms
Going through withdrawal from drugs or alcohol makes mood episodes and the symptoms of bipolar disorder much more severe. As a stimulant, meth withdrawal tends to cause severe depression, loss of pleasure in life, and thoughts of suicide. You might also act erratically or dangerously.
At Ingrained Recovery, we monitor you for psychiatric symptoms and provide medication support as needed. By making the withdrawal process more tolerable, we believe it lets you focus better on the next steps in your recovery.
Medication for Bipolar Symptoms
It would be nice if finding the right pill for treating the symptoms of bipolar disorder would make them disappear. While medication can help with mood symptoms, reduce the intensity of manic symptoms, or treat depression, it’s only one part of the puzzle. The rest is things like developing a support system and habits that support long-term recovery.
In addition to medications like mood stabilizers, SSRIs, or atypical antipsychotics used to treat bipolar disorder, some clients receive prescriptions for other mental illnesses they might struggle with, like anxiety disorders or major depressive disorder. Getting your mental health in check supports your mindset, something that’s essential as you embark on your journey to overcome methamphetamine use disorder.
Dual Diagnosis Therapies
Dual diagnosis gives you a much closer look at the cycle you are stuck in because of co-occurring substance use. You’ll also start to learn strategies to break free from this cycle. Often, this involves a targeted approach of various therapies that we believe would benefit you the most. You’ll work closely with your team to find out exactly what the best combination is to help you overcome the symptoms of bipolar disorder.
While cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) are considered the gold standard for dual diagnosis, they are often used alongside other therapies for added support. For example, family therapy to improve interpersonal relationships and promote healing, or motivational interviewing to help you hone in on your “why” for getting sober.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
If you live with cyclothymic disorder, you may have already recognized the way that your thoughts and emotions seem to control your next steps. With CBT, you’ll start to recognize unhelpful thoughts and triggers that shift your mood. You’ll start to replace them with better, more helpful thoughts. You have power over your thinking and doing this puts you back in control.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy
If your bipolar disorder causes you to struggle with intense emotions or desires to self-harm, even through self-destructive habits like meth addiction, DBT can help. DBT teaches skills like emotional regulation, mindfulness, and distress tolerance. You’ll learn coping strategies that benefit methamphetamine cravings and the symptoms of bipolar disorder.
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Overcome Bipolar Disorder and Drug Addiction at Ingrained Recovery
If you or a loved one are struggling, don’t hesitate to reach out to Ingrained Recovery. Our treatment center stands out, from our compassionate staff and spacious, peaceful campus to evidence-based programs designed to set you up for success. We can help you heal from the never-ending cycle of mood shifts and methamphetamine use and start to feel in control.