Addiction In U.S. At Pandemic Levels

wellness.com:

Untreated alcohol and drug addiction in the United States remains at pandemic levels, with little change from year to year, an expert says.

Read the whole story: wellness.com

Comments

[Andrea Reynolds]

06:50 PM on 09/19/2009

I love parrots as I do all the animal world. I love most people as well, but I don't think you will be one of them. Make your own concoctions!

[Augustina Blair]

10:50 PM on 09/18/2009

Addiction is not a disease as stated in the article. The consideration of addiction as a disease is an opinion and not a fact. Addiction is a disorder.

[Andrea Reynolds]

07:03 PM on 09/19/2009

You are not entirely correct. Addiction is a disease caused by disorders of the Psyche.

[BrainDart]

02:38 PM on 09/18/2009

People do what they most want to do, which usually feels' good -- whether good for them or not. To change behavior one must align desires and feelings; although easier said then done it's a process that does work.

Richard Levine, author of "Smoke and Mirrors"
http://thedoublemessage.com/

[Andrea Reynolds]

06:54 PM on 09/19/2009

What you say is very wise. But there are very few addicts who are able to cure themselves without help.

[royevatom]

11:40 AM on 09/18/2009

The most addictive and accepted compound on earth is "Sugar". Care to consider how much damage it does to peoples lives, to their behavior, to their health?

[Giada]

10:35 AM on 09/18/2009

I've seen excellent results with teens and have been involved with groups of parents who address the issue in group, and then with their teen. The teens receive therapy, family as well, teens then become involved and lead in secular groups 3-6 months with excellent results.

Current studies in Portugal are showing a high rate of success when the family is fully involved and learns to communicate in a healthy way.

There is no substitute for the bio/psycho/social model, client centered approach. We need to have a thorough work up prior to diagnosis.

There are numerous reasons for substance dependence. In my family I've seen childhood trauma, severe physical pain, as causative.

[Andrea Reynolds]

06:56 PM on 09/19/2009

Every word you wrote is wise and true.

[TheOceanWalker]

08:13 AM on 09/18/2009

The obesity epidemic is another facet of this overall problem, I believe.

[MadHeart]

07:08 AM on 09/18/2009

Well, the estimate of 23.1 million doesen't include prescription drug addicts, either, including those for depression, muscle relaxers, pain medication, etc., many of which people get addicted to and once hooked, can't buy the Rx and go to street sales. Additionally, there are those who get hooked on heroin substitutes like methadone which is sold in for profit clinics, giving the user easy access for a $10 or $20 dose every day, and are manipulated by the user, the idea being lower doses over time, but which will be prescribed at higher doses given the anecdotal "progress" experienced by users. The profit motive ensures that the more methadone sold, the more "success" the clinic will have.

I know of all the above, having a 49 yr old son who has been addicted to both opiates and alcohol since he was in his late teens, but who has held a job pretty consistently all his life. In my 50s, I got custody of his small children at great financial and emotional cost (and losing a home and jobs in the process). Ask the grandmothers about drugs and their effect on society because most of them are raising grandchildren due to the effect of drugs.

Even though I don't consider marijuana an addictive, harmful "drug" I've also seen family neglect because ot it as well. Perhaps people who are well off can afford drugs, but most working people cannot as it interferes not only financially, but psychically, on everyone eventually.

[Andrea Reynolds]

07:00 PM on 09/19/2009

My feelings and my heart are with you. Obviously you have had serious and sad experiences in these matters.

[BlackYowe]

03:48 AM on 09/18/2009

I know it is a huge problem that no one seems able to confront head on.

[DallasDon]

03:37 AM on 09/18/2009

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The Good: The State has an interest in your preservation. And believes that if left to your own devices, you will harm yourself. This was the grand and noble guiding principle upon which our anti-drug laws were originally based.

The Bad: With the participation of law enforcement, politicians and the judicial system, capitalist created the prison industrial complex for maximum profit. Whose goal was never rehabilitation, but rather punitive vengeance.

The Ugly: The manufacturing, sale and use of drugs is truly ugly. Aside from war, nothing has cost more blood or money than drugs. Drugs leave death, misery and suffering in its wake. A trail of shattered hopes, dreams and lives can be traced directly to drug and alcohol addiction.

Make no mistake, crystal meth, coke and alcohol are insidiously, diabolically ugly. They will make a person give away everything they ever had, ever will have, and everyone who loves them. And ultimately take their life.

That being said, this is in no way a condemnation for the medicinal or recreational use of marijuana. ;-)

[Andrea Reynolds]

07:07 PM on 09/19/2009

I agree totally about the medicinal use of marijuana. It's recreational use can cause serious accidents and often is a stepping stone to other drugs.

[tjinc]

02:10 AM on 09/18/2009

Addressing the public health issue of drug addiction is NOT just about treatment. Treatment reaches far fewer people than prevention.

The treatment community has a lockdown these days on addressing the drug problem in America, and purporting to be the public voice for this issue. Prevention has largely been kicked to the curb or usurped by therapists who are mostly ineffective at public programs.

A three legged stool approach is the most effective; prevention, intervention, and treatment. All three must be present and equal or the stool will not stay upright; as well the same is true for treating the public health disease of addiction.

Therapy is only one option, the most recent, and not necessarily the best option to treat addictions. AA and NA have worked for decades when all other methods have failed. Of course, AA and NA are free, and take business away from therapists.

As a former prevention generalist in the field of drug abuse prevention, I am quite saddened to see how prevention has been sabotaged by the medical/therapist business.

[Nor Cal Mom]

10:22 PM on 09/17/2009

Apparently Andrea Reynolds is full of $hit.

[coastalcarla]

04:46 PM on 09/18/2009

Life is pain. Anyone that says different is selling something.

[BikeFreak]

12:05 PM on 09/19/2009

How Sylvia Plathish of you. :)

[terribyte]

10:08 PM on 09/17/2009

Well this is a carefully worded article.
23 million American alcoholics and junkies, but no mention of whether these junkies are doing street-junk or have had their drug-use legitimized by medical professionals.
It's not too surprising that an entire generation of Americans have decided 'better living through chemistry' isn't such a bad thing, we've been bombarded from the earliest age with cutesy little cartoon adverts condoning the use of happy-pills.

In 1997 the FDA loosened restrictions on big-pharma, allowing them to advertise directly to the public - huge mistake, and it needs to be reversed.

Big-Pharma spent $4.2 billion for direct-to-consumer advertising in 2005 alone, and we're wondering why America has a drug problem?
We need to put the pharmaceutical companies back into the business of research and development, and get them out of the business of hype.

[minimalist syntax]

02:47 AM on 09/18/2009

My 20 year old nephew started out as a street ju.nkie and now instead of her0in, does op@na. He still shoo.ts it up. It is really easy to get apparently. He just goes to a doctor who has a reputation for prescribing pain pills and complains about his pains.Sadly, his real pain is completely unaddressed.

He wasn't initially lured by being prescribed pain pills.

[Pavane]

08:35 PM on 09/17/2009

Andrea ... okay, I'm game. Explain what you did.

[Andrea Reynolds]

07:13 PM on 09/19/2009

As a number of addicts read this, I can't publish this article in this forum. It would be totally counterproductive. If you really need to know, send me an email address or a PO box or somewhere I can send it to you. Google me and you'll find a way to reach me.

[scarab23]

08:01 PM on 09/17/2009

Time for a change, wouldn't you say? We have to remove the stigma of shame which is a result of the judgment we heap upon these already fully burdened people so that there may be a pathway to recovery not fraught with the pitfalls of the "Corrections" Industrial Complex where exacerbation is the corporate aim

[brooklyncitizen]

10:20 PM on 09/17/2009

There is a pathway only if you choose it.
We hear only about the ones tht make it not the ones that don't.

[Andrea Reynolds]

07:33 PM on 09/17/2009

Unfortunately I had a serious drug addict in my life. At first I was just worried and horrified. Then I decided to to cure that person. He was using Morphine injections every 5 or six hours. Sleeping pills (Nembutal) every night, Valium (Diazepam) as well as Marijuana. What made this difficult was that he was not willing to go to a detox clinic. To make a long story short, there is a way to trick drug addicts into curing them.

This is not an universal cure, but it worked. If anyone who reads this has a similar problem, I would be happy to explain to them what I did.

[Pavane]

08:36 PM on 09/17/2009

What did you do?

[Andrea Reynolds]

06:42 PM on 09/19/2009

Dear Pavane,
I wrote a fairly comprehensible paper about what I did and why. Some of the comments to my piece such as the one by Coastal Carla and a few others were too dumb to bother with. I am not selling a concoction or a religion or anything. All I want to do is to give advice to anyone who has to face that problem. I'd be willing to email my article to anyone who is unfortunate enough to need this sort of advice. I can be reached at [e-mail].
Best regards.

[minimalist syntax]

09:12 PM on 09/17/2009

What did you do?

[Andrea Reynolds]

06:44 PM on 09/19/2009

Please read what i replied to Pavane.
Best regards.