Depression treatment is most successful when it’s holistic in scope. Depression, after all, is a disease with both physical and psychological origins, and effective depression recovery must entail both physical and psychological healing. On the one hand, depressives are subject to neurological chemical imbalances, which are in part responsible for the crushing emotional lows associated with the disease. At the same time, depression victims are prone to negative thought and behavioral patters, which can exacerbate the impact of their illness. Only by addressing both of these roots can depression treatment promote real and meaningful wellness.

Note too that depression treatment is often a vital part of a drug treatment program. Depressives often turn to substance abuse as a mechanism of self-medication, and cannot be expected to get sober without first achieving substantive depression recovery. Given the stakes in the fight against addiction, anything less simply won’t cut it.

Bipolar depression, also called bipolar disorder or manic depression, can be a devastating disease. To be a victim of bipolar disorder is to be trapped between two distinct and debilitating psychological states. On the one hand, bipolar depressives are subject to the withering lows commonly associated with classical clinical depression. On the other, they’re prone to bouts of sustained mania, characterized by both physiological and cognitive agitation. It is obviously not the kind of life anyone would want to live. And that’s why so many bipolar depressives resort to drug and alcohol abuse.

Drugs and alcohol can mitigate the highs and lows of bipolar depression. The only catch, of course, is that they’re an inherently self-destructive solution to the problem. Bipolar depressives who’ve fallen victim to drug and alcohol abuse, then, need two kinds of help, the first to address their substance habits and the second to address their psychiatric states. Only with such dual diagnosis and holistic care can bipolar addicts expect to get sober for good. Anything less simply isn’t good enough.