Dual Diagnosis · Pomona, California
Mental Health & Addiction Programs
Dual diagnosis treatment that addresses both at once
Substance use disorders and mental health conditions often occur together. Treating one while ignoring the other tends to produce a result that does not hold.
Mental Health Assessment · CBT · DBT · Individual Counseling · Peer Support Groups · Family Therapy
Why Mental Health and Addiction Are Treated Together
The relationship between the two runs in more than one direction, and part of good treatment is not assuming which direction applies before you have looked.
Mental health symptoms came first
For some people, mental health symptoms play a role in the development of an addiction. Drinking or using becomes a way to quiet something that was already there.
Addiction came first
For others, it is the addiction that appears to deteriorate their mental health over time, as sleep, relationships, work, and physical health all come under strain.
Both, without a clear link
It is not always clear whether the two are connected at all. Rather than one causing the other, addiction and mental illness sometimes simply exist side by side. Whatever the case, they have a heavy impact on each other.
Addressing mental health alongside addiction treatment can improve a person’s daily functioning and quality of life, and build the kind of resilience that carries through the rest of recovery.
Common Co-Occurring Mental Health Conditions
People seeking help for substance use can carry a wide range of mental health diagnoses and concerns. The conditions below are examples rather than a complete list.
| Condition | How it commonly interacts with substance use |
|---|---|
| Depression | Low mood and loss of motivation that both drive use and deepen after it |
| Anxiety | Substances used to take the edge off, with anxiety often rebounding harder afterward |
| Bipolar disorder | Mood episodes that can disrupt treatment engagement and complicate medication |
| Post-traumatic stress disorder | Ongoing symptoms that threaten long-term sobriety if left unaddressed |
| Schizophrenia | Requires coordinated psychiatric care alongside substance use treatment |
| Schizoaffective disorder | Combines mood and psychotic features, needing an integrated treatment plan |
| ADHD | Including inattentive type, formerly called ADD; impulsivity and self-medication are common threads |
Depression and anxiety tend to be the most common concerns seen alongside addiction. Even where symptoms never rise to the level of a diagnosed disorder, depressive and anxious symptoms very commonly play a role somewhere along the line.
What Is Dual Diagnosis Treatment?
Dual diagnosis treatment is an addiction treatment approach that puts particular focus on mental health and how it interacts with substance use. In practice that means understanding existing diagnoses, working through issues in talk therapy, and managing symptoms with new coping skills, medication, or both.
With intensive treatment in a safe setting, dual diagnosis patients are able to work on the deeper issues and difficult symptoms that affect every area of their lives rather than only the substance use sitting on top of them.
Stress is a known risk factor for relapse. Continuing symptoms of PTSD or another condition can threaten long-term sobriety, which is why working through them inside a program with a mental health focus matters.
The Benefits of Dual Diagnosis Care
Alongside the therapies used in standard addiction treatment, dual diagnosis programming adds a further layer.
| Benefit | What it involves |
|---|---|
| Full mental health assessment | A professional evaluation that establishes what is actually going on before a plan is written |
| Individualized counseling | Regular one-to-one sessions with a trained counselor |
| Therapist-led peer support | Groups facilitated by clinical staff rather than left to run themselves |
| Evidence-based methods | Cognitive behavioral therapy and dialectical behavior therapy, both with established support |
| Family therapy | Opportunities to work through issues with relatives, led by a trained family therapist |
| Whole person care | Attention to mind and body rather than the addiction in isolation |
| Better self-understanding | A clearer grasp of how a mental health condition and substance use feed each other |
| New coping skills | Strategies for resilience, self-empathy, and distress tolerance |
| A safe space | Somewhere to vent frustrations and work through the challenges treatment itself creates |
Dual Diagnosis IOP and PHP at One Touch Recovery Center
Treatment at two levels of care
At One Touch Recovery Center in Pomona, CA, we provide mental health IOP treatment and partial hospitalization programs to help individuals achieve and maintain both sobriety and mental wellness.
Live at home, or in sober living
Intensive outpatient care allows clients to live off-site — at home or in sober living — and to continue with work and school during treatment.
Flexible scheduling
Our outpatient programs give patients room to work through treatment on a schedule they can actually keep, attending individual therapy, group therapy, 12-step meetings, and other programming at the times that fit their week.
A Note on Coordinated Care
Dual diagnosis treatment works best when the mental health side and the substance use side are genuinely coordinated rather than running as two separate programs that happen to share a client.
Anyone comparing dual diagnosis programs is worth asking directly: who conducts the mental health assessment, who oversees medication if it is part of the plan, and how the two halves of the treatment team communicate about the same person.
Located at the Edge of Two Counties
Our facility sits right at the border of Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties, between the city and the foothills. Patients in our outpatient programs can reach what they need, whether that is a bus route to work or somewhere green to walk on a hard day.
Serving Pomona, Claremont, San Dimas, La Verne, Ontario, Chino, Upland, Glendora, Walnut, Diamond Bar, and Montclair.