Taking A Look At The Pervasive Problem Of Drug Abuse In The United States

Drug addiction is all too prevalent throughout the United States, and has only grown in recent years. The opioid crisis is one that should not be underestimated, as it has claimed the lives of many and ruined the lives of many more. Though drug addiction and its symptoms and effects will certainly vary from person to person, there is no denying that drug addiction is a serious disease, one that currently has America in its grips.

Of course, the data more than backs this up, showing that by the time we had reached the year of 2015, more than two and half million people in the United States who were at the time older than twelve years of age had a problem with substance abuse. Of those people, millions had an addiction to pain killers and more than half of a million were addicted to or using heroin, two drug addictions that go hand in hand all too often.

After all, eighty percent of those that eventually move on to the harder drug of heroin and sometimes even fentanyl first started with the misuse of prescription pain killers. Many now addicts even became first hooked on painkillers when they were lawfully prescribed them by a medical doctor, usually after an injury or a medical procedure. But for many, the need for more persisted past the expiration of the prescription, leading to the obtainment of such painkillers through illegal means and the eventual switch to heroin which, in some parts of the country, is considerably easier to find.

Drug abuse and addiction is also a pervasive problem among the youth of the population as well, with data showing that as many twenty one thousand adolescents were heroin users by the time that we had reached the year of 2015. Of those people, as many as five thousand are heroin addicts who are still using on a regular basis and six thousand or more are likely to have a heroin use disorder. This heroin use disorder, if not treated or even noticed by someone like a family practice doctor early on in the progression of addiction, can all too quickly become life ruing and even deadly.

Nowadays, addiction and drug abuse have become so prevalent and so pervasive in the United States that drug overdose is now the first cause of accidental death. In the year of 2015, more than fifty two thousand and four hundred people died of an overdose, a number that has unfortunately only risen in the years that have followed. On top of this, more than twenty thousand of these deaths were because of painkiller abuse and heroin led to nearly thirteen thousand deaths in that same year.

Fortunately, however, there is help possible for even the most entrenched of addicts. For many, going to a rapid detox center is the first step on the long path of recovery. A rapid detox center can provide a safe place in which to detox, a process that, by all accounts, is far from a pleasant one.

A rapid detox center can also often provide the emotional support to the patients, as those who go to a rapid detox center are likely to be in a great deal of pain in the hours that are to come. It is important however, that an addict chooses a rapid detox center that is staffed by certified and well trained medical professionals, as the process of detoxing from various substances can even prove to be dangerous. A severe detox from alcohol can even lead to death in some extreme cases, though only if it is not monitored and proceeded with in the way that it should be.

The rapid detox center is only the first step, however, and a detox doctor at said rapid detox center should put you in touch with a therapist as soon as possible. Getting an emotional support animal might also prove to be useful, and can help the typical addict through the more complicated and emotionally fraught periods of detoxing and of recovery and sustaining sobriety.