One of the most important things someone who has a family member struggling with addiction can remember is that no one wants to be addicted. No one had a goal to become addicted. But when addiction happens, the battle for sobriety can be a tough journey.
Human nature makes us want to postpone what we know might be uncomfortable, or something that we are a little afraid of. It always seems that it will be easier in the future, but the truth is that the best time isn’t in the future, it’s right now.
To begin to calculate the value of treatment for substance abuse, it is helpful to first understand the costs related to substance abuse. Substance abuse impact is expensive, not just to the person using the substance, but to their family, workplace and society.
A Mark Twain quote states, “Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I’ve done it a thousand times.” This humorous quote paints a not so funny truth about addiction. Most people who are addicted to a substance have tried repeatedly to quit and have failed repeatedly and returned to their substance. Quitting is easy, maintaining sobriety is harder.
Families often struggle to get a loved one into treatment for an alcohol or drug addiction. It is not easy to start a conversation about addiction, and many times the person struggling with addiction responds with excuses, anger, denial or minimization. A conversation can easily escalate to an argument where nothing is accomplished.
According to the Surgeon General’s Report published in 2016 “20.8 million people aged 12 or older in the United States had a substance use disorder. That number is similar to the number of people who suffer from diabetes and more than 1.5 times the annual prevalence of all cancers combined (14 million).”
It was after one of those parties, in fact, where Ben hit what he calls his rock bottom. He apparently “made an ass of himself”, although he doesn’t remember it. After the party, he went home and fell down the stairs. He was pretty beat up, bloody, sore, bruised and lucky to have survived the fall.
Gulf Breeze Recovery is a holistic, non-12-step treatment program that takes pride in offering top notch care to everyone who participates in our program. Gulf Breeze Recovery has an ongoing policy of striving to constantly improve our services, using feedback from our guests as a guideline.
Addiction is commonly believed to be a concern for teens or younger adults. Unfortunately, addiction doesn’t have an age or socioeconomic victim of choice. It crosses all ages, socioeconomic levels, gender and race. As it does so, older adults are commonly identified as being addicted to drugs and/or alcohol.
Relapse after substance abuse treatment is common. Unfortunately, some people go to multiple programs investing both time and resources in their quest for sobriety. So often, sobriety, when it is achieved, doesn’t last.