Addiction Is an Epidemic That Impacts More Than 140 Million Adults in the U.S. Every Day

by Maxine McKew

Addiction Is An Epidemic That Impacts More Than 140 Million Adults In The U.S. Every Day

Most of us really don’t have a clue about drugs and alcohol, except that they do bad things to us and our kids. All it takes is not knowing truth about what drugs can do to your children. And, not knowing how to pass the truth about drugs on to them. You know your kids are pretty smart. They can make good decisions about many things.

The new national figures have just been released for drug use and addiction for 2007 and the news is not good. Nationally, nearly 20 million people (aged 12 and older) used an illicit drug each month, and more than 23 million were classifiable as needing treatment for alcohol or drug abuse. Only 2.4 million people actually got treatment leaving many millions in danger of losing their homes, their families, their health, their very lives.

But anyone who has been around an addict knows this fact: the addict is not the only one suffering. The families, the employers, teachers and friends of the addict suffer too. A survey done in 2004 showed that 63 percent of adults surveyed said that they had needed to grapple with the addiction of someone close to them, usually a family member. This means that in America, 142.5 million people struggled with someone’s addiction.

For many of those who did receive treatment, unfortunately, addiction rehab has a “revolving door,” meaning that many of those who go through rehab often repeat their trips to rehab over and over again.

“We have had people arrive at Narconon Arrowhead for treatment after ten or even twenty times through other addiction treatment programs,” said Derry Hallmark, Director of Admissions and Certified Chemical Dependency Counselor. Narconon Arrowhead is one of the country’s leading drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers in Canadian, Oklahoma. “The tragic thing is that it’s not necessary to go through treatment repeatedly if you get down to the bottom of the reasons for the addiction and address them thoroughly. That’s what the Narconon program is known for.”

The Narconon program utilizes a dry-heat sauna and a strict nutritional regimen to flush out the residues that drugs leave behind that may be involved in cravings, then employs counseling and life skills training to help a person recover their self-esteem and values that may have been destroyed by drug use.

“We want people to know that there is a holistic option for them, one that treats the whole person and that does not use drugs or psychotherapy,” added Mr. Hallmark. “Graduates of the Narconon program find drug-free success 70 percent of the time, and we want to make that fact known to all the family members and friends of those suffering from drug or alcohol addiction.”