Addiction Treatment

A quick glance at most addiction treatment articles today usually shows some stories about high-profile people or celebrities entering a treatment center, some new piece of legislation being supported by one group or another, and even the latest attempt to treat addicts with more drugs.

The first category starts to become redundant when a celebrity goes in and out of multiple centers to relapse over and over. This sort of news is helpful to the addiction treatment field as far as general promotion goes, but harmful when multiple relapses occur. A successful program will ensure that the majority of its clients do not have to be readmitted for treatment ever again in their lifetime.

The last example might be the most startling one, since the goal of addiction treatment should be to get people to stop using alcohol and other drugs for good. By prescribing a new drug to someone already addicted, they are being left under the influence, mentally and/or physically, of yet another toxic substance complete with its own set of side effects, so how can we really rely on addiction treatment if this is the case.

News of these drugs, most of them already on the market for some other treatment and being tested to see if they have any effect on addicts, is typically related to the stock market shares of the drug's manufacturer. There never has been a wonder drug that will cure any kind of addiction on a broad basis, or even produce newsworthy results which is why we are still stuck in the cycle of addiction that is affecting so many today. Therefore the addiction treatment news focus isn’t on how effective the drug is, but how many millions or billions of dollars in sales the for-profit drug maker is projecting for its new market.

History has demonstrated that drug-free addiction treatment has a longer-term effect on the individual. With so many millions of Americans addicted to drugs or alcohol, a different approach to addiction treatment needs to be taken. We need to open our eyes and realize that substituting one drug for another is not working and more needs to be done. The focus needs to be taken off of what prescription drug a person can take for their illegal drug addiction and needs to be put on how the person addicted can live a drug free life with out the assistance of any medication, legal or illegal, ever again.

Many do not believe that addiction can be overcome because they believe that it is a disease that you are going to live with for the rest of their lives. Addiction is not a disease and something can be done about it.