This comprehensive, integrative psychotherapy approach contains elements of many effective psychotherapies and is designed to maximize treatment effects. It includes elements of psychodynamic, cognitive behavioral, interpersonal, experiential, and body-centered therapies, according to the EMDR Institute.

EMDR psychotherapy is an information processing therapy and uses an eight-phase approach to address the experiential contributors of a wide range of pathologies. At its core, it addresses past experiences that have set the groundwork for pathology, the current situations that trigger dysfunctional emotions, beliefs and sensations, and the positive experience needed to enhance future adaptive behaviors and mental health.

That can sound a little overwhelming, and the science behind it is very detailed, but the EMDR process is really quite simple for those going through it. It usually centers around eye movements, tones or taps – or a combination of all three. During the reprocessing phases, the client focuses momentarily on past memories, present triggers or anticipated future experiences while simultaneously focusing on a set of external stimuli (this is where the eye movements, tones or tapping comes in). Moving your eyes in a certain pattern, rhythmically tapping a finger on your leg or listening to soothing instrumental music through headphones during therapy may seem odd, but this “dual stimulation” often allows for the emergence of insight, changes in memories or new associations that wouldn’t happen through traditional counseling alone.

One of the hardest things about EMDR can be simply trusting the process to work without the need to force something to happen. The clinician is there to assist you in focusing on the appropriate material, and all you need to do is follow his or her directions and enter into the process with an open mind. EMDR is not a magic cure, but it can be an extremely helpful method of treatment and bring about fresh insights that can lead to better emotional health.

Addiction Treatment and Therapy at La Paloma

If you or someone you love needs addiction treatment and therapy, call La Paloma at the toll-free number on our homepage. Someone is there to take your call 24 hours a day and answer any questions you have about treatment, financing or insurance.

Yet another study is making the connection between mental health issues and addiction, a correlation that treatment experts have long understood.

The recently released government report shows that a whopping one in five American adults, or nearly 50 million people, suffered from a mental illness in the past year with women and young adults more susceptible. And those battling mental health issues were three times as likely to develop substance dependence or substance abuse than adults who had not experienced mental illness.

The survey, administered by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), polled 67,500 people aged 12 and older in person around the United States. For the purposes of the study, the administration defined mental illness among adults as having had a diagnosable mental, behavioral or emotional disorder, excluding developmental and substance use disorders.

The study also found women were more likely than men (23 percent to 16.8 percent) to have experienced a mental illness, while the rate of mental illness among people aged 18 to 25 was twice that of those aged 50 and older. In addition, the report includes this sobering stat: About 8.7 million American adults had serious thoughts of suicide with 2.5 million of those making suicide plans and 1.1 million attempting to take their own lives.

Mental health issues play a role in many addictions. Individuals suffering from issues like trauma, PTSD, depression or bipolar disorder may turn to drugs or alcohol to self-medicate, possibly without even being aware that they have a mental illness. Because such a high percentage (thought to be more than 90 percent) of those who pursue addiction treatment are found to also have one or more co-occurring mental health issues, it’s important to treat both in order to get lasting recovery. That’s why it’s important to find a program that employs a Dual Diagnosis or co-occurring treatment model.

Help for Addiction and Mental Health Issues at La Paloma

If you or someone you love needs help with a co-occurring disorder, call La Paloma at the toll-free number on our homepage. Someone is there to take your call 24 hours a day and answer any questions you have about treatment, financing or insurance.

Post-traumatic stress disorder is a real danger for survivors of the recent Ohio school shooting. The tragedy at Chardon High School outside of Cleveland leaves the students, teachers and responders at risk for developing not just PTSD, but trauma, depression or anxiety.

On Feb. 27, 2012, T.J. Lane opened fire in the school’s cafeteria killing three students and wounding two others. No clear motive for the attacks has been released, and the suspect, age 17, is in custody.

As the prayer services and funerals wrap up, it will become clear that those with physical wounds aren’t the only ones who were hurt by the shooting. The survivors, as they begin the difficult task of moving forward, are likely to experience a certain amount of anxiety and stress. They may have trouble sleeping and be re-traumatized by hearing or seeing news reports or individual accounts of the tragedy. Many students will wrestle with guilt. That’s normal following such an event.

The concern is that anyone exhibiting signs of PTSD or other mental health issues get help so he or she doesn’t end up carrying lasting psychological scars from the experience for years to come.

Post-traumatic stress disorder is a mental health condition brought on by a terrifying event. The symptoms interfere with daily life and can include flashbacks, anxiety, nightmares, difficulty sleeping or concentrating, and even physical aches and pains.

Following the 2001 shooting at Santana High School in Santee, Calif., that left two students dead and 13 wounded, researchers found that about 12 percent of the 1,160 students screened had some symptoms of PTSD nine months later. Also, nearly a quarter of the students who were directly exposed to the violence suffered from some degree of PTSD nine months later, according to the study.

Kids with a history of mental illness or other traumas may struggle more. Girls and younger teens also tend to be at higher risk for developing PTSD after trauma. That’s why it’s important to monitor those at risk for behavior changes or signs of ongoing stress. There are effective treatment options for PTSD, the individual just needs to take advantage of them.

Addiction and Mental Health Treatment at La Paloma

If you or someone you love needs help with a co-occurring disorder, call La Paloma at the toll-free number on our homepage. Someone is there to take your call 24 hours a day and answer any questions you have about addiction and mental health treatment, financing or insurance.

It seems that new disorders are popping up everywhere lately. Shows like My Strange Addiction and Hoarders highlight individuals dealing with a variety of issues ranging from hoarding and a romantic obsession with a car to dangerous behaviors like sleeping with a running blow dryer. These behaviors are odd, to be sure, and they’re definitely hard for those who don’t suffer from them to understand, but are they legitimate mental health disorders?

The DSM-5, the fifth and most current version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, is a tool filled with detailed information on a wide variety of conditions, many of them familiar like bipolar disorder, alcoholism and PTSD. As experts work to prepare the next edition, due out in May 2013, they also do an extensive review of possible new conditions to include, according to a recent report from MyHealthNewsDaily.

To make the cut, the condition needs to have a unique set of symptoms and a verifiable medical cause. Some of the disorders being considered for inclusion in the next DSM include hypersexual disorder (different from sex addiction), premenstrual dysphoric disorder, binge eating disorder (distinct from bulimia because it doesn’t include purging), learning disorder (a general category currently lacking in the DSM), cannabis withdrawal (separate from other disorders relating to the use or abuse of marijuana currently included in the DSM) and hoarding (which has ties to obsessive-compulsive disorders already in the DSM but scans show different brain patterns in hoarders).

Help for Addiction and Mental Health Disorders at La Paloma

If you or someone you love needs help with drug or alcohol addiction and mental health issues, call La Paloma at the toll-free number on our homepage. Someone is there to take your call 24 hours a day and answer any questions you have about co-occurring disorders treatment, financing or insurance.

In the movies and among many teens and college students, the perception is that pot is relatively harmless. It mellows you out and the worst side effect is a bad case of the munchies, right? Not according to a new study. An article published in the latest issue of the professional journal Archives of General Psychiatry shows a much scarier potential effect of marijuana. It turns out that a chemical called tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), found in pot, increases the brain processes that can lead to symptoms of psychosis.

So what does that mean for the average person? Can smoking pot lead to psychosis? Are there are other possible health concerns uncovered by this new study?

Previous research has found that THC can induce symptoms of psychosis in healthy people and worsen psychotic symptoms in people already experiencing them. Long-term cannabis use is also associated with an increased risk of schizophrenia, the study suggests.

The study is groundbreaking in another way: Its findings are the first to use images of the brain to demonstrate that the reason symptoms of psychosis arise in marijuana users may be because THC interferes with the brain’s ability to distinguish between stimuli that are important, and those that aren’t, according to the study.

The study, led by Dr. Sagnik Bhattacharyya, a psychopharmacologist at King’s College in London, included 15 healthy men with minimal previous marijuana use. The researchers used functional MRI scans to observe the men’s brains after they took pills containing THC, cannabidiol or a placebo. The resulting images showed changes in the areas of the brain that are believed to be linked to symptoms of psychosis. Men taking THC had increased activity in the prefrontal cortex but lower activity in the region called the striatum, changes that the study says could be attributed to THC’s ability to alter the brain’s levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine.

While those in charge of the study don’t go to far as to say that prolonged marijuana use will make you psychotic, the findings are interesting and provide just one more argument for abstaining from pot use.

Marijuana Addiction Help at La Paloma

If you or someone you love needs help with marijuana addiction, call La Paloma at the toll-free number on our homepage. Someone is there to take your call 24 hours a day and answer any questions you have about drug treatment, financing or insurance.

Thanks to the Federal Mental Health Parity Act of 2008, employers who provide health insurance plans for mental and substance use disorders are now required to provide benefits that are equal to those given for general medical care. But three years later, is this act actually making a difference in the number of individuals seeking treatment?

Sadly, parity in insurance coverage of substance abuse treatment has not led to increased use of this service or an increase in costs, according to new research. That doesn’t mean the Parity Act has failed, though. In fact, it has done what it was designed to do — lower out-of-pocket expenses for covered individuals.

Those who were against the passing of the Parity Act, argued that if coverage was made more readily available, use will rise dramatically. Experts argue that’s not the case.

“There is always a fear that for substance abuse and mental health, every time a plan is more generous, the utilization will skyrocket, the costs will be so high, and all the insurance companies will start complaining that they won’t be able to afford these services. But this is not true,” lead study author Vanessa Azzone, PhD, researcher and biostatistician in the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, told Medscape Medical News.

“I think these findings, along with those found in other studies, clear the air for all the people who have been criticizing parity law for mental health treatment,” Dr. Azzone added.

While previous research on the impact of mental health parity mandates has helped to pave the way for the passage of federal legislation, there have been few studies on the effects of parity mandates for substance abuse treatment benefits. That will continue to change as parity laws remain in place and time passes, allowing for more studies.

Drug Abuse Treatment

If you or someone you love is in need of drug abuse treatment, call La Paloma at our toll-free number. Someone is there to take your call 24 hours a day and answer any questions you have about treatment, financing or insurance.

It’s official: The American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) has officially recognized that addiction is not solely related to substance misuse and is, in fact, a chronic brain disease.

For decades, addiction specialists and those battling substance abuse have had to fight against the stigma that addiction is some sort of character flaw or personal weakness. But experts have long known that “at its core, addiction isn’t just a social problem or a moral problem or a criminal problem. It’s a brain problem whose behaviors manifest in all these other areas,” ASAM Past President Michael Miller, MD, said in a news release.
“The disease is about brains, not drugs. It’s about underlying neurology, not outward actions,” added Dr. Miller, who oversaw the development of the new addiction definition.

This new definition of addiction was based on findings from brain circuitry studies prompted by more than 80 experts who came together four years ago to begin the process. Previous research has shown that addiction affects neurotransmission in the reward area of the brain, triggers craving of addictive behaviors based on memories of previous experiences, and alters areas that govern impulse control and judgment.

Highlights of the new definition include a description of addiction as a primary disease, which means “it’s not the result of other causes such as emotional or psychiatric problems.” ASAM also notes that addiction is a chronic condition, and so should be treated, managed and monitored over a lifetime. The new definition also acknowledges that the disease drives behaviors that others might not understand. It also makes clear that addiction is not a choice, even though choice plays an important role in getting help.

Experts hope this new definition will help decrease the stigma of addiction. By decreasing the stigma, treatment professionals believe it will lessen the barriers to individuals getting the help they need.

Drug Addiction

If you or someone you love is battling drug addiction, call La Paloma at our toll-free number. Someone is there to take your call 24 hours a day and answer any questions you have about treatment, financing or insurance.

Working moms are less likely to show symptoms of depression than stay-at-home moms, MSNBC.com reports, citing a new study. Working moms aren’t off the hook, though. Those who are harder on themselves when it come to setting realistic expectations at balancing work and family end up having higher rates of depression than their more laid-back counterparts.

Researchers analyzed survey results from 1,600 married US women between the ages of 22 and 30 who had children at home. The information was collected as part of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and asked women’s opinions on a series of statements that seemed to hold outdates ideas on working women and family. Researchers then went back and measured levels of depression in the women at age 40.

Overall, women who were employed either full or part time were less likely to be depressed than those who stayed at home. Signs of depression included difficulty concentrating, feeling lonely, sad or restless, having trouble sleeping or getting going in the morning and feeling unable to shake the blues.

But working women surveyed who were less sure about the ability of women to balance careers and family were also less apt to show symptoms of depression than women who thought it was going to be easy to do both, according to the study.

“The findings really point to the mismatch between women’s expectations about their ability to balance work and family. Women still do the bulk of household labor and child care, even when they’re employed full time,” said study author Katrina Leupp, a graduate student at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Some of the women who think it’s not difficult to work and take care of kids may also be buying into the “supermom” complex — pressuring themselves to be overachievers in all aspects of life, Leupp said.

Treatment experts know that addiction rates are higher for those who suffer from mental health disorders including depression, so the findings are of interest to those who work to treat substance abuse. But treating co-occurring disorders like addiction and mental health issues simultaneously – often referred to as “dual diagnosis treatment” – success rates are higher than regular addiction treatment.

Co-occurring Disorders Treatment

If you or someone you love is in need of substance abuse treatment, call La Paloma at our toll-free number. Someone is there to take your call 24 hours a day and answer any questions you have about treatment, financing or insurance.

Could routine mental health screenings for high school students become the norm? A new study suggests it could be a valuable tool in identifying adolescents at-risk for mental illness and connecting those adolescents with recommended follow-up care. The study, reported by Science Daily, included nearly 2,500 high school students and was the largest school-based study conducted to-date by the TeenScreen National Center for Mental Health Checkups at Columbia University. Findings are published in the September 2011 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Conducted between 2005 and 2009 at six public high schools in suburban Wisconsin, results found that nearly three out of four high school students identified as being at-risk for having a mental health problem were not in treatment at the time of screening. Of those students identified as at-risk, a significant majority (76.3 percent) completed at least one visit with a mental health provider within 90 days of screening. More than half received minimally adequate treatment, defined as having three or more visits with a provider.

“The value of school-based screening is reinforced by this study and highlights TeenScreen’s unique ability to help teens whose mental health problems would otherwise go unidentified,” said Leslie McGuire, MSW, TeenScreen’s deputy executive director, and an author of the paper.

The computerized screening, designed to identity depression, anxiety and several other mental health conditions, took approximately 10 minutes to complete.

The Mental Health and Drug Abuse Connection

Adolescence is an important window for intervention because 50 percent of all lifetime mental health disorders start by age 14, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Untreated depression and other mental health problems can lead to school failure, drug and alcohol abuse, violence, and criminal involvement. Most tragically, untreated mental illness can lead to suicide — the third leading cause of death among adolescents. Research has shown that most young people with mental illness can be effectively treated and lead productive lives.

Undiagnosed Issues Lead to Self-medicating

A high percentage of adults undergoing substance abuse treatment have been found to have underlying mental health issues ranging from depression and bipolar disorder to anxiety and PTSD, which can contribute to or exacerbate an addiction. Treatment experts know undiagnosed mental health issues can be dangerous because they can cause individuals to turn to drugs or alcohol to self-medicate. Dual Diagnosis treatment for mental health and addiction has been proven to be very successful, though.

Dual Diagnosis Treatment

If you or someone you love is in need of treatment for a co-occurring disorder, call La Paloma at our toll-free number. Someone is there to take your call 24 hours a day and answer any questions you have about treatment, financing or insurance.

We’ve been saying it for a while now: Mental health issues and addiction often go hand in hand. And even for those who don’t turn to drug addiction or alcohol addiction, the problem is still sizeable. We hear so much about heart disease and cancer, but in 2008 the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that brain disorders accounted for about 13 percent of the global disease burden, a greater percentage than both cardiovascular diseases and cancer.

The World Mental Health Survey, published in 2008 and covering 28 countries, estimated that one in three adults suffers from a mental disorder including bipolar, depression, PTSD, anxiety and many others. That’s a staggering number. And a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, pulled together data from surveys to reveal that 6.8 percent of adults had moderate to severe depression.

The new report is an update on a 2005 paper that estimated that 27 percent of the European Union population was affected by mental disorders each year. The higher figure resulted from the addition of 14 previously excluded disorders, many of which affect children and the elderly, meaning that the frequency of mental disorders has probably not gone up substantially.

Still, the numbers are so high that we don’t have to see a huge increase to become alarmed. With so many suffering from mental health issues, there is a high incidence of self-medicating, with alcohol, prescription meds or illegal drugs. Individuals don’t get treatment for their symptoms or don’t feel it’s working so they turn to other methods to feel better. Before long, they have an addiction to deal with as well as their underlying mental health issues. In the treatment world, this is called dual diagnosis, and a high percentage of those entering substance abuse treatment arrive with these co-occurring disorders.

For decades, the stigma surrounding mental disorders has kept some from seeking treatment and pushed others to keep their treatment secret. That shame can also contribute to addiction. Fortunately, in recent years the stigma has lessened and increasing education will continue to help sufferers feel like they don’t need to hide their diagnosis.

Dual Diagnosis Treatment at La Paloma

If you or someone you love is in need of dual diagnosis treatment or other help, call La Paloma at our toll-free number. Someone is there to take your call 24 hours a day and answer any questions you have about dual diagnosis treatment, financing or insurance.