Addiction and recovery

Addiction is a chronic brain disease that is sadly undertreated and misdiagnosed. Addiction and recovery are important issues to society, yet, there’s not much in the news to keep people informed. This is from ReNew Everyday:

• Twenty-three million Americans age 12 or older suffer from alcohol and drug addiction.

• More than 15 million of those are dependent on alcohol, roughly 4 million are dependent on drugs, the rest are dependent on both.

• In 2006, nearly 1.8 million Americans were admitted to drug and alcohol treatment facilities.

• Preliminary data for 2009 from the CDC show the highest percentage in a decade measured for adults who have consumed more than 5 drinks a day (23 percent).

• Individuals treated for alcohol misuse are approximately 10 times more likely to commit suicide than those who do not misuse alcohol, and people who abuse drugs have about 14 times greater the risk for eventual suicide.

So, only a small fraction of people suffering from addiction seek treatment. There are many reasons for this lack of treatment — one is the social stigma still placed on addiction. Another reason is that it’s hard to access treatment even if a person has coverage. Many insurance companies treat addiction differently than other chronic medical conditions, so the coverage has loop-holes and barriers that make it difficult for people to seek treatment. The Affordable Care Act should help with this problem of access, but if the deductibles are too high, that can create another barrier.

Alcohol and other drug problems account for hundreds of billions in wasted productivity and preventable healthcare costs. Recovery from addiction is positive for everyone, even those who don’t have an addiction problem or don’t know anyone with an addiction problem. There’s not enough talk about recovery from addiction, because there isn’t even enough talk about the problem of addiction itself. Recovery is the positive side of this problem and people do recover. There could be more recovery if there were more resources to help addicts get into recovery. Here is a website that presents the basics of recovery — it is very useful information for anyone interested in the problem of addiction.