Drug and alcohol abuse and addiction in the United States has for some time now been on the rise. This problem has been increasing for a few years now and seemed to be here to stay. Addiction statistics measuring all different types of addiction problems show a steady climb in numbers since 2003, and this fact has not gone unnoticed. There has also been a rise in programs and organizations fighting addiction.
For example:
- Since the turn of the century, the number of individuals in the United States who are addicted to drugs and alcohol has almost doubled. In the 1990s there were roughly ten million addicts. At the turn of the century, there were a little more than fifteen million. Now, at the end of 2015, more than twenty-four million Americans admitted to having a substance abuse problem of one kind or another.
- Overdoses from drug and alcohol addiction and substance abuse, in general, have also been growing. For example, around the turn of the century roughly thirty-thousand Americans were losing their lives to drugs and alcohol annually, now more than eighty-thousand die from these habits every year.
- In the 1980s and 1990s, an individual’s average age of first drug abuse was about 22 years old. Not it is closer to 16. The younger someone is when he or she abuses drugs and alcohol, the higher the likelihood that he or she will be permanently damaged or die from it.
Now That Drug and Alcohol Abuse is Such a Huge Issue in the Nation, Addicts are Looking for Treatment Solutions
Because there are about twenty-five million Americans who are addicted to drugs and alcohol, it follows from common sense and simple logic that there would also be a considerable push for more rehabilitation centers and programs. This is beneficial because inpatient drug and alcohol treatment centers offer the very best of services when it comes to fighting addiction and substance abuse problems in general.
However, there is just one major problem with this situation. Rehab is expensive. It costs a lot of money to run a rehabilitation facility, and it indeed isn’t cheap to feed, shelter, and rehabilitate an addict for several weeks. Try doing that with several dozen or even hundreds of addicts at a time, and you have an overhead of hundreds of thousands of dollars on a weekly basis, if not millions. This cost is excised upon those who can afford to go to such rehab programs or who have health insurance coverage plans that can pay for it, but these are not the majority. What then comes of those who are addicted to drugs and alcohol, who do not have health insurance, and who do not have the financial means to pay for rehab centers?
Rehab is needed for everyone who is addicted to drugs and alcohol. For example, the opioid crisis, fed by widespread abuse of prescription painkillers and inexpensive heroin, has been linked with rising mortality rates and was responsible for nearly 29,000 overdose deaths in 2014, according to federal data.
The State that You Live in Can Make a Difference in How Successful You Will be in Finding Free, Sliding Scale, or Government-Funded Rehab Centers for Fighting Addiction
The battle certainly is tougher in such states, but that does not mean that it is an unbeatable one. There are resources for addicts in red states too. Certain non-profit organizations such as Cenikor, the Red Cross, Teen Challenge, and other similar programs all offer help for those who are addicted to drugs and alcohol. Specific AA and NA groups will also provide sponsors and financial assistance to put people through inpatient rehab centers who need the help. Finally, rehab centers often offer scholarships when they are available for low-income families who have an addict among them who need rehabilitation as soon as is possible.
Fighting Addiction Successfully
In the end, there are still ways to beat addiction if one has enough incentive or drive to do so, no matter where one lives. With the tools above and other tools like them, addiction can become a thing of the past in no time at all. It is of the utmost importance also that those who are addicted to drugs and alcohol seek out such programs soon so that the addiction crisis can start to make its first turnaround since the beginning of the 21st century.
Addiction, no matter who it affects or how severely it affects them, is still a beatable and confrontable issue. It takes a great amount of work, but there is no doubt at all that fighting addiction is possible. It can be beaten once and for all.
Why are Heroin Overdoses ... 
Are You Struggling with P... 
