|
|
If you’re having trouble sleeping regularly, you may feel the need to turn to sleep medications or other substances to get a better night’s rest. The problem with this is that it often results in dependency on the medications or substances you use to lull yourself to sleep at night. Getting insomnia treatments at an inpatient facility can address the real cause of your sleepless nights and help you break the habit of self-medicating.
How Insomnia Is a Common Symptom of Self-Medicating or Mental Health Issues
About one-third of adults suffer from insomnia at some point during their lives. There are some medical and mental health conditions that may contribute to the inability to get a good night’s rest for most of these people. According to the National Library of Medicine, almost half of those suffering from insomnia are also diagnosed with a mental health condition, such as depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder.
When people suffer from insomnia, they’re also more likely to turn to substance abuse to try to get a good night’s sleep. Addictions to alcohol, sedatives and other depressants are common because people choose these substances as a way to self-medicate. These tactics don’t address the underlying cause of insomnia and only make the condition worse.
Why Insomnia Is Often Linked to These Conditions
Insomnia is often linked to mental health disorders because the body needs to relax before it can enter the first stages of sleep. When someone suffers from anxiety or PTSD, they’re much more tense and vigilant than those without these conditions. The inability to fully relax prevents the brain and body from releasing hormones that aid with falling and remaining asleep throughout the night.
When people first suffer from insomnia, they may turn to substances that contain sedatives, such as alcohol, nighttime cold medicines or prescription sleep aids. The downside to many sleep aids is that they can create dependence, and the body may begin to tolerate them, requiring more medication or substances to create the same drowsy effect. Abusing alcohol or over-the-counter drugs can lead to overdoses, drug interactions and organ damage.
How Treating the Root Cause Helps Insomnia
Rather than treating insomnia as if it’s the condition itself, it’s much more effective to determine the cause of your restless nights. If you’re under a lot of stress constantly, have experienced trauma or suffer from anxiety or depression, these concerns may be keeping you up at night. Not all causes of insomnia are related to mental health, and it could be due to a combination of factors.
Sleep apnea is one medical condition that causes people to wake up repeatedly through the night because of an obstructed airway while they’re asleep. Once the condition is diagnosed and treated, these people find it much easier to fall asleep and wake up refreshed. The same rings true if someone is suffering from mental health conditions or addiction.
If you suffer from insomnia, it’s important to determine why you can’t sleep. Once you begin to treat the underlying cause, you’re going to find you get more replenishing rest at night and can fall asleep more often than before.
Inpatient Therapy Allows Dual Diagnosis Treatment
There’s a strong correlation between mental health conditions and substance abuse disorders. Those who suffer from a mental health condition are much more likely to turn to drugs or alcohol. People who become alcoholics or addicts are also more likely to develop a mental health disorder than those who don’t engage in substance abuse.
A dual diagnosis means someone suffers from both a mental health condition and a substance abuse disorder at the same time. It’s important to be able to address both concerns at once due to how they’re interlinked. Addressing only one side of the problem doesn’t offer a complete path to recovery.
Choosing to receive treatment at an inpatient center allows you to treat both conditions simultaneously and learn skills you can use to prevent relapses in the future. You’re also connected with aftercare services that let you continue your progress and get additional help whenever you need it.
Steps to Take to Address Treatment
If you’re suffering from insomnia due to a mental health condition or addiction, the first step is to reach out for help. Our counselors can review your history to pinpoint the underlying causes of your insomnia so you’re able to treat both conditions. The next step is to undergo sleep assessments that shed more light on what’s contributing to your sleep disturbances.
Some of the most effective sleep therapies include neurotherapy and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). FHE uses both of these strategies for patients with a dual diagnosis, as they can treat both conditions at the same time.
Because sleep is one of the most important contributing factors for good mental health, we use neurotherapy to train the brain to regulate sleep more efficiently. This and CBT for insomnia make it easier to fall asleep and stay asleep longer. While you’re undergoing insomnia treatments, you can also benefit from treating the causes of any other substance abuse or mental health conditions while in a supportive environment.
While receiving insomnia treatments, you also need to undergo behavioral therapy or counseling to address your substance abuse disorder. If you don’t treat the underlying cause of your insomnia, it could return even after effective neurotherapy treatments. Our inpatient substance abuse program helps you break your dependence on substances such as sedatives, alcohol or street drugs.
Once you leave our inpatient facility, it’s important to continue to receive support from people who understand what you’re going through. This is why we connect our patients with aftercare services to reinforce positive habits and coping skills that keep them on the right track.
Take the First Step Today
If you’re having restless nights and feel you’re struggling with a mental health problem, help is a phone call away. Contact us today by calling (833) 596-3502. At FHE Health, we understand what you’re going through and are available to take your call 24/7. Let’s take the first step to your recovery together.
