Discover the RIGHT TREATMENT & START YOUR NEW BEGINNING

We're all unique. We'll help you pick the best addiction treatment program for you.

Meth Overtakes Alcohol as Nation’s Most Pressing Addiction Problem

July 17, 2016

No Comments

For decades, in spite of all of the different narcotic drugs that wreak havoc on the nation, alcohol has been the number one most dangerous and concerning addiction problem in the United States. Now however, since the turn of the century, the nation has begun to see a different drug that is starting to overtake alcohol. America’s most pressing issue today is the meth addiction problem that is steady on the rise.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):

Alcohol has been overtaken as the most pressing addiction problem in the country. The addiction treatment sector says more patients now need help for methamphetamine use. Treatment facilities are stretched to capacity, and there are long waiting lists.

This has never ever happened before, and it’s significant because it demonstrates how many people are struggling with a meth addiction problem. In the last decade, alcohol abuse and addiction have still been increasing and worsening, but it has been nothing like the damages caused and felt by meth abuse and addiction. Meth has just shot up in popularity by more than five-hundred percent in just a few years. Mainly, for the young adults of the nation, meth is now far more commonly abused than alcohol.

If even only another dozen inpatient rehab programs were set up in every state then an extra 50,000 people could benefit from addiction treatment every year, and many addicted individuals want to see a funding boost for both addiction services and mental health alike. They want help, but they can’t get it, so they keep relapsing on meth.

Cruel Truth About America’s Meth Addiction Problem

Substance abuse is a hardship wherever it strikes, but meth addiction is particularly dangerous and concerning. Meth addiction is highly challenging to beat even with the help of inpatient treatment centers.

Listed below are some statistics on meth abuse in the nation:

Methamphetamines, (also known as meth, crank, ice, speed, crystal), create terrible effects on those who take them. The use of this drug also has increased, especially in the West. Methamphetamine is a powerful stimulant that increases alertness, decreases appetite, and gives a sensation of pleasure, but it is deadly and dangerous, and it ruins the human mind and body. The drug can be injected, snorted, smoked, or eaten. It shares many of the same toxic effects as cocaine – heart attacks, dangerously high blood pressure, and stroke.
According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), meth is the fastest growing drug in the nation when it comes to public opinion.
Withdrawal from meth abuse often causes depression, abdominal cramps, and increased appetite. Other long-term effects include paranoia, hallucinations, weight loss, destruction of teeth, and heart damage. It can kill, and if it doesn’t kill it leaves the human body ruined and scarred for life. Meth causes permanent brain damage; no one will never be the same after he or she has used it enough.

Rehabilitation for Methamphetamine Addiction

Drug and alcohol addiction is a tricky thing to resolve. It has always been this way, and recent times and stronger drugs and more lax laws on substance abuse have only made it even more difficult to resolve this problem permanently and effectively. With alcohol abuse, the withdrawal symptoms are so severe from alcohol that people often are crying out for rehab. Meth addiction though is actually far worse than alcohol addiction because, while meth is highly addictive, it does not produce such powerful withdrawal symptoms as alcohol does. In this way, people who are addicted to it often think that they can just go on and on abusing it week after week with no consequence.

Meth use and abuse will rot the human body out from the inside out and the outside in. So, one must impress upon a meth addict the severity of his or her present situation. For someone who is addicted to meth, they need to get into an inpatient treatment center as soon as possible.

Inpatient rehab is the only thing that can help a meth addict. Inpatient rehab is also necessary for an alcoholic, but it is even more important for a meth addict because it will force him or her to work on his or her issues successfully and affluently. It will provide opportunities for him or her to discover the underlying mental and personal reasons for why he or she abuses meth. In this way, (45 to 90 days of inpatient rehab), it’s possible to rehabilitate a meth addict. With help like this, anyone suffering from a meth addiction problem honestly does stand a chance at getting rid of the habit once and for all. Learn more about America’s most pressing addiction problem by calling our toll-free number today.