Dual Diagnosis: Double Trouble in Recovery – DTR Meeting Schedule, Readings

What is Dual Diagnosis?

Dual diagnosis is a term used to describe a person who is diagnosed with a mental illness and substance dependency at the same time. More than half of persons who have a serious mental illness also have some form of substance abuse. Dual diagnosis is sometime also referred to as co-occurring disorder.

It can be difficult to find treatment for someone who has a mental illness and also uses drugs or alcohol. Many programs that treat people with mental illness are not well prepared to treat substance abusers, and programs for substance abusers are not geared for people with mental illness. Individuals with dual diagnoses often bounce from one program to another, or are refused treatment by single-diagnosis programs. Gradually, specialized MISA (Mental Illness and Substance Abuse) programs are being established. In Twelve Step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous they stick to a singleness of purpose (i.e. topics focus on alcoholism and not mental health diagnosis) The program Double Trouble in Recovery has been designed to meet the needs of the dually diagnosed.

What is Double Trouble in Recovery?

Double Trouble in Recovery is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength, and hope with each other so that they may solve their common problems and help others to recover from their particular addiction(s) and mental disorders. Double Trouble in Recovery is designed to meet the needs of the dually diagnosed and is clearly for those having addictive substance problems as well as having been diagnosed with a mental disorder.

Double Trouble also addresses the problems and benefits associated with psychiatric medication as well as other issues crucial to mental health; thus we recognize that for many, having addiction and mental disorders represents Double Trouble in Recovery. There are no dues or fees for DTR membership; we are self-supporting through our own contributions. Double Trouble in Recovery is not affiliated with any sect, denomination, political group, organization, or institution. Our primary purpose is to maintain freedom from our addiction(s) and to maintain our well-being.

How it Works

We band together to help ourselves recover from our addictions and mental disorders. We share our experiences in order to help ourselves to become honest, open-minded, and willing. Sharing helps all of us to remember how it was and how we arrived at where we are today. We live one day at a time and practice the Twelve Steps of DTR.

The Twelve Steps

1. We admitted we were powerless over mental disorders and substance abuse — that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. Made direct amends to such people whenever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and, when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other dually-diagnosed people and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

The Twelve Traditions of Double Trouble in Recovery

1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends on DTR unity.

2. For our group purpose, there is but one ultimate authority – a loving God, as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.

3. The only requirement for DTR membership is a desire to stop drinking and drugging, and to work on one’s mental health.

4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or DTR as a whole.

5. Each group has but one primary purpose – to carry its message to the dually-diagnosed person who still suffers.

6. A DTR group ought never endorse, finance or lend the DTR name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.

7. Every DTR group ought to be self-supporting, declining outside contributions.

8. Double Trouble in Recovery should remain forever non-professional, but our service centers may employ special workers.

9. DTR, as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.

10. Double Trouble in Recovery has no opinion on outside issues; hence the DTR name ought never be drawn into public controversy.

11. Our public relations is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio and films.

12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.

The Promises

If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are halfway through. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will not regret the past or wish to shut the door on it. We will comprehend the word serenity, and we will know peace. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experiences can benefit others. The feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear. We will gain interest in our fellows. Self-seeking will slip away. Our whole attitude and outlook on life will change. Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us. We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. We will suddenly realize that our Higher Power is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.

(Adapted from Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed., pp. 83–84)

On Recovery

We who are dually diagnosed are compelled to walk a long and narrow path. When we go out of control with our substances of choice, we become lost. If we ignore our doctors and our therapists, and misuse our medications, our path becomes very dark indeed. In our fellowship, we band together for common good and recovery. With open-minded understanding for each other, we honestly expose our problems and our weaknesses. The humility we show shall never mask or cover the courage it takes to admit who and what we are as, together, we find the hope and strength that make our narrow path into a wide road that leads to peace, serenity, and a meaningful life. Therefore, working the Twelve Steps of DTR and regular attendance at DTR and other appropriate self-help groups will help us gain the rewards of sanity, serenity, and freedom from addictions. DTR invites you to join us and continue or begin your mental, physical, and spiritual recovery.