If you’re struggling with addiction, especially if you have a dual diagnosis, a Delray Beach psychiatrist can be a vital member of your treatment team. Our Delray Beach psychiatrist oversees the medical detox of all addicts, and treats recovering addicts who are coping with mental illness symptoms. A Delray Beach psychiatrist will take the time to evaluate your psychiatric and medical needs and give you the personalized treatment you need.
What Is the Difference Between a Delray Beach Psychiatrist and a Psychologist?
There’s one simple difference between a Delray Beach psychiatrist and a psychologist, and that is that a psychiatrist is a doctor with medical school training. A psychologist has advanced training in the science of psychology, but no medical training.
That’s why our Delray Beach psychiatrist should be present during your medical detox. Our Delray Beach psychiatrist has the medical training and knowledge to understand the risks of your particular detox, and to administer the treatments necessary to see you safely through your detox. A psychologist cannot recommend or prescribe medication, since he or she is not a doctor.
How Can a Delray Beach Psychiatrist Treat Addiction?
Our Delray Beach psychiatrist specializes in addiction psychiatry, a subspecialty of psychiatry that has to do with drug addiction and alcoholism as well as gambling and sex addictions. Our Delray Beach psychiatrist knows how to administer treatment for addiction.
Many people who seek the help of our Delray Beach psychiatrist suffer from a dual diagnosis – that is, they’re struggling both with addiction and another mental disorder, like depression, anxiety or an eating disorder. You may be suffering from a mental disorder and not realize it. While mental illness does not cause addiction or vice versa, the two things can exacerbate one another. If our Delray Beach psychiatrist determines that you are suffering from a mental illness, you’ll need treatment for your mental illness in order to recover from addiction.
Our Delray Beach psychiatrist may prescribe psychiatric medications, such as anti-depressants or anti-anxiety drugs, to treat your mental illness symptoms. It is important that you take the medications our Delray Beach psychiatrist prescribes, even if you are in recovery from addiction. Taking medications prescribed by our Delray Beach psychiatrist is not the same as abusing drugs. If you have a psychiatric condition that requires medication, taking that medication is crucial to the success of your recovery – otherwise, your mental illness symptoms could push you into relapse. You should continue taking any drugs our Delray Beach psychiatrist prescribes until such time as our Delray Beach psychiatrist decides that you may not need them anymore. However, many mental illnesses require the use of medication to treat symptoms long term, especially if there is a risk of addiction relapse.
What Other Treatments Will Your Delray Beach Psychiatrist Recommend?
As a medical doctor, our Delray Beach psychiatrist will recommend fitness and nutritional therapy to help your body heal physically from addiction. If you are suffering from an eating disorder, our Delray Beach psychiatrist will recommend intensive eating disorder treatment.
Healing from addiction and mental illness is both physical and psychological. Our Delray Beach psychiatrist will recommend psychotherapy in addition to the nutrition and fitness therapy necessary to heal your body. You will probably be asked to attend individual and group therapy sessions tailored for the treatment of your specific mental illness, as well as psychotherapy for addiction treatment. Psychotherapy treatments our Delray Beach psychiatrist will most likely recommend will include cognitive behavioral therapy, group therapy and family therapy. Your specific treatment plan will depend on what your specific diagnosis is, and upon your personal needs and circumstances.
How Long Will Your Treatment Last?
There’s no cut and dry answer to this question – your treatment will last as long as it needs to. Most people need several months to a year of intensive addiction treatment. Ongoing treatment with a psychotherapist who specializes in addiction is recommended. Attending a recovery support group on a regular basis is also a good idea.