Co-Occurring Disorders
When it is both addiction and mental health, not either or
Most people who reach out are not dealing with just anxiety or just alcohol. It is both. Depression with nightly drinking. Bipolar symptoms with stimulants. Trauma with pills to sleep. Attempts to treat “the drinking” without addressing mood, or “the anxiety” without touching the substance use, have already been tried and have not been held.
Insight Into Action Therapy is built for that reality. Our clinicians work specifically with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders, using one coordinated plan instead of sending you in three different directions.
What co-occurring disorders look like in real life
For most people, it sounds like:
- Alcohol used to manage social stress, sleep, or difficult days, while depression or anxiety keeps getting worse
- Bipolar disorder or mood instability that becomes more chaotic when drinking or using stimulants
- Panic or chronic worry managed with prescribed or non prescribed sedatives that are getting harder to control
- Trauma symptoms muted at night with alcohol or drugs, then flaring again the next day
- A pattern of “doing well” for a period, followed by a run of use that wipes out weeks or months of progress
- Obsessive or intrusive thoughts that drive compulsive use patterns, followed by guilt, secrecy, and escalating distress
On paper, these show up as separate diagnoses. In daily life, they function as one system. If you treat only one side, the other usually pulls it back out of alignment.
When split treatment is not working
Many clients come to us after trying a fragmented setup such as medication from one prescriber focused on mood or sleep, therapy elsewhere for anxiety, depression, or trauma with a separate provider, program, or group addressing substance use. There is no clarity on how all of it fits together. Insight Into Action Therapy is deliberately structured to avoid that.
Our model centers on three questions:
- What is happening across both mental health and substance use, not just the loudest symptom
- How do mood, anxiety, trauma, and substances interact and keep each other in place
- What sequence and mix of interventions will move the entire system in a better direction
From there, care is built around a coordinated plan.
Integrated treatment under one roof
Insight Into Action Therapy brings therapists, psychiatrists, and psychologists together in one practice. That matters when both mental health and substance use are in play.
Care can include:
Medication management
Psychiatrists target mood, anxiety, sleep, and stability while fully accounting for alcohol and drug use. Doses and choices reflect both symptom relief and addiction risk, with adjustments made in coordination with your therapist.
Individual therapy
Therapists work on specific patterns that hold both problems in place: thought cycles, avoidance, trauma responses, habits tied to cravings, and the daily structure that either supports or undermines change. You are not asked to pretend substance use and depression are separate topics.
Group and dual diagnosis work
When appropriate, you may participate in group treatment focused on how mental health and substance use interact. This includes early warning signs, relapse patterns, and day to day strategies to keep both more stable.
Couples and family work
If your use and your mental health have affected partners or family, selected sessions can involve them. The goal is to change interaction patterns that trigger relapse, secrecy, and shutdown.
You Need Now!
What progress looks like
Progress with co-occurring mental health and substance use is not measured by perfection. It is measured by:
- Fewer crises where work, home, and health all feel like they are falling apart at once
- Less need to hide drinking, drug use, or symptoms from one provider or another
- More realistic plans for work, relationships, and health that account for both sides of the problem
- Clearer decisions about substances and risk that align with your long term goals rather than short term relief
- A stronger sense that treatment has structure, direction, and an endpoint instead of drifting indefinitely
Therapy that lifts the weight you carry is especially relevant when that weight includes both mental health and substance use.
Contact our office to schedule an appointment with a clinician who can address co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders in a single, coordinated care plan.