2. What is a Co-Occurring Disorder/Dual
Diagnosis/Co-Morbidity?
• Dual diagnosis is a term for when someone experiences a mental illness and
a substance abuse problem simultaneously. Dual diagnosis is a very broad
category. It can range from someone developing mild depression because of
binge drinking, to someone’s symptoms of bipolar disorder becoming more
severe when that person abuses heroin during periods of mania (NAMI,
2015).
3. What is a Co-Occurring Disorder/Dual
Diagnosis/Co-Morbidity?
• Either substance abuse or mental illness can develop first. A person
experiencing a mental health condition may turn to drugs and alcohol as a
form of self-medication to improve the troubling mental health symptoms
they experience. Research shows though that drugs and alcohol only make
the symptoms of mental health conditions worse (NAMI, 2015).
• Abusing substances can also lead to mental health problems because of the
effects drugs have on a person’s moods, thoughts, brain chemistry and
behavior.
4. How Common?
• About a third of all people experiencing mental illnesses and about half of
people living with severe mental illnesses also experience substance abuse.
These statistics are mirrored in the substance abuse community, where about
a third of all alcohol abusers and more than half of all drug abusers report
experiencing a mental illness (NAMI, 2015).
• About one in five adults in Maine reported experiencing any mental illness in
the past year (2016). Adults between 18 and 25 years old reported the highest
rates of past-year major depressive episodes at 15 percent; an increase of 3
percentage points since 2015–16 (MaineSEOW).
5. • Experiencing depression in the past year is associated with higher rates of
substance use and suicide. In 2017, High School students who reported
feeling hopeless or sad for at least two weeks within the past twelve months
were almost twice as likely to have used marijuana or to have engaged in
alcohol use in the past 30 days, and three times as likely to have misused
prescription drugs during the past 30 days. Among youth, depression is also
associated with problems with relationships and academic achievement
(MaineSEOW).
6. 2019
• According to most recent estimates, about one in five adults in Maine
reported having ever been diagnosed with anxiety, while one in four reported
having ever been diagnosed with depression. Rates of depression are
consistent among adults ages 18 to 25, 26 to 35, and 36 to 49. Rates of
anxiety are highest among adults between 26 and 35 years old. Rates of
depression among young Mainers in high school have been increasing in
recent years. About one in seven high school students in Maine had planned
for suicide, and one in 10 reported they had attempted suicide in the past
year. (MaineSEOW).
7. Terms we will use in this course
• Attempted suicide
• Completed suicide
• Substance Use Disorder (SUD)
• Person First Language – “Jarod has Schizophrenia,” not “He’s
Schizophrenic.”
• SMI – Serious Mental Illness
• Serious Emotional Disturbance – Under 18
8. • Serious mental illness is defined by someone over 18 having (within the
past year) a diagnosable mental, behavior, or emotional disorder that
causes serious functional impairment that substantially interferes with or
limits one or more major life activities.
• For people under the age of 18, the term “Serious Emotional
Disturbance” refers to a diagnosable mental, behavioral, or emotional
disorder in the past year, which resulted in functional impairment that
substantially interferes with or limits the child’s role or functioning in
family, school, or community activities (SAMHSA, 2020).
