We are here to help you! Call us +855 405 2733
We are here to help you! Call us +855 405 2733
A co-occurring disorder means a substance use disorder and a mental health condition at the same time. It is not the exception — it is closer to the norm. Roughly half of people with a serious mental illness also have a substance use disorder, and the overlap runs both ways.
This is the core of what Axis Mental Health does. We started as a mental health organization, which means the psychiatric side is not an add-on service we bolted onto an addiction program.
Axis Mental Health provides outpatient substance use and mental health treatment from Desert Hot Springs, California, serving the Coachella Valley, Riverside County and the wider Southern California region. Our care includes individual and group therapy, psychiatric medication management, dual-diagnosis treatment for co-occurring mental health conditions, and telehealth appointments anywhere in California.
We are an outpatient provider. We do not operate a medical detox or residential unit. If your assessment shows you need that level of care first, we will help you find a licensed program and pick your treatment up again the moment you step down.
Call (855) 405-2733 for a free, confidential consultation, or send us a message.
For decades the system was split. Addiction programs told people to come back once the psychiatric symptoms were stable. Mental health providers told people to come back once they were sober. People bounced between the two and got treated for neither.
That model is now understood to be wrong, for reasons that are fairly obvious once stated:
Integrated treatment means one team, one plan, both conditions, at the same time. It is the current standard of care and the model with the evidence behind it.
Usually unknowable, and less important than it feels. There are three plausible pathways and they are not mutually exclusive:
Clinically, some clarity comes from time: a period of abstinence shows what resolves and what persists. Depression that clears in three weeks of sobriety was largely alcohol-induced. Depression still present at three months is its own condition and needs its own treatment. Which is a reason not to make a hasty diagnosis in week one — and equally a reason not to withhold treatment for months while symptoms are severe.
The most common pairing there is. Alcohol is a depressant that feels like relief for a few hours and deepens depression over weeks. It also markedly increases suicide risk through disinhibition. Treatment: naltrexone or acamprosate, an antidepressant if depression persists past early abstinence, and CBT or behavioral activation.
Alcohol and benzodiazepines both work brilliantly on anxiety in the short term and make it worse in the long term through rebound and tolerance. Untangling this requires a slow taper plus real anxiety treatment — CBT with exposure, an SSRI or SNRI, buspirone or hydroxyzine. See benzodiazepines.
Very high overlap, particularly among veterans, first responders and survivors of childhood abuse or assault. Substances suppress intrusive memories, hyperarousal and nightmares. The old belief that trauma work had to wait for long-term sobriety has been overturned: concurrent trauma-focused treatment — prolonged exposure, CPT, EMDR — delivered alongside substance use treatment produces better outcomes than sequencing them. Pacing still matters, and pacing is not the same as postponing indefinitely.
Very high co-occurrence. Substance use during mania is often part of the episode; substance use during depression is often self-treatment. Mood stabilization is the foundation, and antidepressant monotherapy can precipitate mania in someone whose bipolar diagnosis has been missed — which is why an accurate diagnosis matters more here than almost anywhere.
ADHD roughly doubles substance use disorder risk, and self-medication is common. The key clinical point: properly treated ADHD is associated with lower, not higher, substance use risk. Treatment can use non-stimulants (atomoxetine, guanfacine, bupropion) or carefully structured stimulant treatment with a single prescriber and tight monitoring. See Adderall.
Distinguishing a primary psychotic disorder from substance-induced psychosis takes time and observation. Both require antipsychotic treatment acutely and both require the substance use to be addressed. Cannabis and methamphetamine are the substances most likely to be involved.
Chronic insomnia drives self-medication with alcohol, cannabis and hypnotics, all of which fragment sleep architecture and make the underlying insomnia worse. CBT-I is first-line and outperforms hypnotics long-term.
We also run specialized programs for populations with distinctive co-occurring profiles: our First Responders Program for police, fire, EMS and dispatch, and services for veterans.
If a program is doing these things, it is not providing integrated care, whatever its brochure says.
A substance use disorder and a mental health condition occurring together. It is also called co-occurring disorders or comorbidity. It is common rather than unusual — the majority of people entering substance use treatment have at least one co-occurring psychiatric condition.
Both, together. That is the whole point. Sequencing them is what the old system did, and it produced poor outcomes because each condition destabilizes treatment of the other.
Time and observation, mainly. Substance-induced mood symptoms usually improve substantially within two to four weeks of abstinence. Symptoms that persist beyond that, or that clearly predate the substance use, or that continued through previous sober periods, point to an independent condition. History matters as much as the current picture.
Yes. Some programs and some mutual-help members will tell you otherwise; that view is not medically supported and has caused real harm. Treating your bipolar disorder or depression is part of your recovery, not a compromise of it. Choice of medication should take abuse potential into account, which is a clinical decision, not an ideological one.
Generally yes. Federal parity law requires most plans to cover mental health and substance use treatment comparably to medical care. Axis Mental Health accepts commercial insurance and works with Inland Empire Health Plan members. Call (855) 405-2733 to verify your benefits.
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If this is an emergency, call 911. If you are in crisis or having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. For free, confidential treatment referrals 24 hours a day, call SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357.
This page is general health education, not medical advice, a diagnosis, or a treatment plan. Never stop or change a prescribed medication without speaking to a clinician first. Withdrawal from alcohol, benzodiazepines and barbiturates can cause seizures and can be fatal without medical supervision.