There is life after addiction. Most people recover

[Jilly_in_VA]

The U.S. faces an unprecedented surge of drug deaths, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reporting another grim milestone this week.

In a single 12-month period, fatal overdoses claimed 101,623 lives.

But researchers and drug policy experts say the grim toll obscures an important and hopeful fact: Most Americans who experience alcohol and drug addiction survive.

They recover and go on to live full and healthy lives.

"This is really good news I think and something to share and be hopeful about," said Dr. John Kelly, who teaches addiction medicine at Harvard Medical School and heads the Recovery Research Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital.

https://www.npr.org/2022/01/15/1071282194/addiction-substance-recovery-treatment
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My adopted daughter and her partner are two. They should not be penalized for recovering!

[greenjar_01]

1. I hard this on NPR the other day

It's a wonderful and hopeful story.

[Demovictory9]

2. Didnt know that

Thought relapse rate was very high

[Iggo]

3. People ain't tryin' to hear that.

They get stuck on stats that other people have pulled outa their asses. Like, say, addiction is a life sentence. Once an addict, always an addict. Or my favorite one, only 10% (or some other made up number) of people in 12-step meetings ever recover, or 12-step programs only have a 10% success rate, when the very nature of the system, anonymity, makes it absolutely impossible to know that. People love their made up statistics, though.

However, the saying “We Do Recover” is true.

[cinematicdiversions]

4. I couldn't agree more

And though the article focuses heavily on. Recovery programs. Which are very important is does miss one observation I have had.

A lot of people simply outgrow the addiction lifestyle on their own.

[DEbluedude]

5. If they're extremely lucky. n/t

[Iggo]

6. Yep, they stop and don't start again.

[ismnotwasm]

7. "Recovery" and 'sobriety" are now mainstream words

Youth culture in particular is very supportive of people trying to get off substances, whatever the means they do it (12 step program, counselings , mutual support, even marijuana maintenance) .

I will say, since I work in a field directly impacted, that Alcohol use disorder still costs billions of healthcare dollars, add substance use disorder and it’s still a huge fucking problem.