Every day, addiction treatment centers face some of the saddest and hardest stories knowing there are addiction treatments and solutions that can change the story’s ending. That’s because every day, they witness drug and alcohol addiction statistics continue to grow. What’s worse is it doesn’t look like the statistics are going to come down anytime soon. This unchartered and epidemic growth of addiction has affected countless families. On average, 130 people die every day in the U.S. from overdoses. Yet even with those appalling statistics, we are no closer to stopping the epidemic of addiction.
The Growing Epidemic of Drug Addiction
Every day we read the headlines in the paper and see the human cost of drug addiction. We read about people who die from overdoses or others who have traffic accidents while impaired. Sometimes the addict becomes part of the crime statistics, and sometimes they end up incarcerated. There are always ongoing drug awareness campaigns offered by heartfelt nonprofit organizations, faith-based organizations, and other organized groups. Almost every state or federal legislator has bills they’ve sponsored or written themselves. They deal with the epidemic of drug addiction but as of today, we haven’t found a solution any more than we did yesterday, or last month, or last year.
Addiction treatment centers are taking positive steps through new treatments and holistic group therapy. Sometimes they make huge inroads in fighting addiction through individual counseling. Unfortunately, the positive steps towards finding the right solution for addiction can only treat one addict at a time. It’s an excruciatingly slow process when there are whole populations in every state fighting against the disease. We all witness or experience it, yet none of us can find a way to prevent it from happening. There are steps you can take in helping an addict seek help but, in most cases, they have to take the first step by themselves. Addiction has no center; it bears no remorse and has no compass to help guide you. That’s why the first step may be one of the hardest ones in fighting addiction.
What Addiction Treatment Centers and Rehab Facilities Offer to Drug Addicts
Every addiction treatment center offers addicted people the one thing they all want, but most cannot admit. It offers the addicted person hope that this time, in this place, with these people, they will find a way to conquer their addiction. They’ll find a way out and away from the dead-end path they keep going down. The addiction treatment center gives them hope that their treatment will include medical personnel, counselors, peers, and support groups that work with them one step at a time through each phase of drug addiction withdrawal and recovery. Each of those phases brings the addict a step closer to having family members or loved ones support them in their efforts.
The word addiction is Latin, and you might not be surprised to know that in Latin, addiction means to be devout or give one’s self up to. The brain is an addicted person’s greatest weapon in overcoming it. That’s because addiction is a psychological disease. It’s one of the organs that suffers the most when an addict goes through withdrawal. Nothing is easy about withdrawal from drugs, and treatment centers are vital for the complicated medical, physical and psychological symptoms of drug and alcohol detox and recovery.
Does Every Addicted Person Who is Seeking Help Need a Rehabilitation Center or Treatment Center?
Because addiction is such a long and complicated process, it’s always best to seek the help of a drug treatment center, Professional treatment is critical, not only during the medically dangerous periods of detoxing, but also because it gives you the support of others who are on the same journey. Almost all of us relate to others and their stories if something in it resonates with our lives or touches us at some level. When you’re in the middle of still wanting to abuse drugs or alcohol, even knowing what it has cost you with loved ones, in your finances, and more, it helps to hear from someone that went through what you did, and they came out on the other side okay.
There are 23 million people who are suffering from the pains of addiction today, which means one in three people knows someone who is addicted. The power and influence of drugs can never be underestimated. Anyone who has witnessed addiction or been through it themselves knows just how powerful the struggle is to break free. One often finds that the addict who can break free from their addiction didn’t find their resolve through their strength. They found their resolve to break free in their will to find more. They want to live and not die; they’re dedicated to finding a way to begin again. It doesn’t matter if it’s your first time or your tenth time in addiction treatment; it only matters that you’re trying.
The Path Forward Has Obstacles Along the Way
The path forward for any addict is never a straight one, and there are many side-turns and forks where you have to make a choice. Not every choice is a wise one, but every choice an addict makes is the only one they feel they can make or deserve. That’s why it’s so important to stop the continual addiction cycle that addicted people feel stuck on. Addiction treatment offers a way for addicts to use the lessons learned by broken and interrupted lives due to substance abuse. Addiction treatment offers them a way to put the broken pieces of their lives back together in a way that makes them stronger.
Most recovering addicts know that it’s never the tree that stands strong and upright that remains the same going through the hardest and most violent storms. The strongest trees are the ones that bend in the wind and let go of the branches and leaves that cannot serve them anymore. Where you end after seeking addiction treatment is how you’ll learn how to let go of that which cannot serve you anymore. The fact that you survive, grow and develop even without drugs or substances is a testament to what you endured and learned. When you think about it, the person you are after addiction treatment always faces the fork in the road with another choice. But this time the choice may be to let the pain of addiction go and move forward, one step at a time.