Addiction Recovery Basics

by Jerry Goldfarb

Alcoholism and drug addiction has reached epic proportions in the 21st century. Crime rates are escalating all over the world. People from every race, color and socio-economic background are becoming addicted to drugs such as Crack, Cocaine, Crystal Meth, Heroin, Alcohol and prescription drugs. As a result of addiction and drug abuse, marriages and families are being devastated; children are being endangered, both directly and indirectly.

The statistics are not encouraging. According to the 2001 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA), a project of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the number of persons with substance dependence or abuse increased from 14.5 million (6.5% of the population) in 2000 to 16.6 million (7.3%) in 2001. We can no longer afford to ignore the impact of drugs and alcohol in our country and in our world.

Addiction professionals need to continuously change and reevaluate the effectiveness of their treatment approaches. There are promising new treatment approaches that need to be properly funded; instead they are being held up by political and bureaucratic red tape. The intention of this article is to promote public awareness of the growing epidemic of addiction, expand the reader's knowledge and understanding of the root causes of addiction, and to emphasize the need to reevaluate the current wisdom in the field of addiction by developing and funding more effective methods of treatment. By acting locally and thinking globally, it is possible to turn the tide of addiction rates around. A number of factors contribute to the development of addictive behaviors such as early childhood trauma, mental disorders, family history, and environment.

Early childhood trauma includes sexual and/or physical abuse, neglect, or abandonment. Some of the mental illnesses that often accompany addiction are learning disabilities, attention deficit disorder, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, depression and a multitude of others. Addictions are often developed through an attempt to alleviate the symptoms of these illnesses. The 2001 NHSDA report states that among adults with mental illness in 2001, 20.3% (about 3 million people) were dependent on or abused alcohol or illicit drugs. The rate among adults without serious mental illnesses was about 6%.

Family history is also very important as certain genetic factors that are attributed to behavior may be passed down from generation to generation. Genetics is also further influenced by the physical environment surrounding the individual. Some people develop their addictions at an early age and never learn to cope with adversity, thereby propagating their addictive behavior. As these individuals grow older, these behaviors become more deeply rooted and their addiction grows stronger until it becomes more difficult to satisfy. Addiction destroys a human being on every level of their existence. It ravages them mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually, leaving them virtually drowning in a sea of loneliness and despair. The hope that they may one day win their battle to stop using vanishes completely. They lose touch with their higher power and their life becomes a seemingly endless series of failures that eventually leads to total resignation to their addiction and their pain. People suffering from addiction not only abuse drugs and alcohol, but every person, place, and thing with whom they come in contact. Although, it is not their intention to cause such tumultuous pain in those around them, these battered emotions seep into all areas of their lives, making attempts at recovery futile.

In years past, addiction treatment centers have focused primarily on treating the psychological aspects of the disease of addiction, while neglecting to address the delicate inter-connective balance of the body, mind and spirit. Most individuals who enter into a 28-day treatment program receive education about their addiction, they scratch the surface of the issues that underlie their addictive behavior, and are introduced to the program of AA (Alcoholics Anonymous), NA (Narcotics Anonymous), and GA (Gamblers Anonymous). After treatment, clients are encouraged to live in a supportive environment such as a ¾ way house. However, most return to their homes and lives unprepared to live in a life without drugs. In some cases, this traditional approach to treatment may be effective. Usually, the success rate of traditional addiction treatment is very low. The wisdom of Western Medicine is that if you have a symptom, treat it. If a person has a headache they take Ibuprofen/Acetaminophen to alleviate the symptoms but never determine the root cause of the headache.

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