People seeking treatment for prescription drug addiction has increased nearly 400% in the last ten years. Many addiction experts and law enforcement officials feel opioid prescription drugs contribute significantly to heroin addiction as addicts seek out easier and less expensive ways to feed the addiction. Being dopesick is not an option and with heroin being easily obtainable it seems the easy path for addicts to take. Another seemingly easy path for opiate addicts to take are suboxone and methadone maintance programs. BUT WAIT ! Addiction to these drugs and subsequent drug addiction treatment admissions along with deaths and illegal drug diversion organizations have increased hundreds of times over in the last decade as well!!!

I work with people all over the country and one of the common denominators at finding effective addiction treatment is the ability to confront and deal with the real issues. Families and addicts skirt the issues for years, then as the effects of drug and alcohol compile, life's problem stack up and turmoil ensues.

The problems them become embroiled into chaos with the addict exhibiting all kinds of mental and sociological issues, that when left for those that want to capitalize to take advantage of. Once people truly confront what's really going on and can look from an objective view, they realize its not a good idea to treat symptoms of addiction. You have to confront the real underlying problems. To get there takes some doing. Doing that just doesn't happen in short term alcohol or drug detox rehab programs.

The National Institute of Drug Abuse ( NIDA) will tell you it takes 90-100 days for the brain to start functioning normally. Now many addiction treatment counselors, psychiatrist and people in the medical community would like you to believe that needs to be handled with more drugs, or more toxins that also have side effects. This is called treating the symptoms and not confronting the issues. The long term effects of drug and alcohol addiction have to be reversed, this take time and can only be done in a long term drug rehab.

Addiction treatment in long term drug rehab helps to reverse the physical and psychological effects to the degree the addict now feels more confident and open to addressing these issues. If an addict really wants help he will do what it takes and the time needed to do so. Inpatient drug and alcohol rehab is really the only way to go when it comes to addiction treatment.     

Paxil Suicides and birth defects are affordable
 As and addiction counsellor and one who has educated thousands on the dangers of all drugs it never ceases to amaze me about the countless “ snake oils” and elixirs that have been around for literally hundreds of years. These so called cures are again prescribed by the Medical professionals as a solution to many problems plaguing society today, specifically drug addiction and the need for addiction treatment.

It is no secret that we have an abundance of individuals in the United States who need addiction treatment. In fact, in 2007, 23.2 million persons aged 12 or older needed treatment for an illicit drug or alcohol use problem. But of that estimated number, how many actually received the help they need?

 According to government estimates via the National Survey On Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), of the this 23 plus millions 20.8 million persons (8.4 percent of the population aged 12 or older) needed treatment for an illicit drug or alcohol use problem but did not receive treatment at a specialty substance abuse facility in the past year.

Roughly 2.4% of those needing specialty addiction treatment at a drug and alcohol rehab facility actually admitted into a facility of that type. This is a huge gap. In fact, of the 20.8 million persons in 2007 who were classified as needing substance use treatment but not receiving treatment at a specialty facility in the past year, only 1.3 million persons (6.4 percent) reported that they perceived a need for treatment for their illicit drug or alcohol use problem (Figure 7.7). Of these 1.3 million persons who felt they needed treatment but did not receive treatment in 2007, 380,000 (28.5 percent) reported that they made an effort to get treatment, and 955,000 (71.5 percent) reported making no effort to get treatment.

What does this all mean? Well for starters there is a huge mass majority of those addicted to drugs and alcohol that don't think or won't admit that there is even a problem to be dealt with. This is old news to families who are struggling to get someone they love to "see the light" through the process of addiction intervention, but may come as a shock to those who are just discovering the denial and lack of desire to change encountered when trying to help someone get their life back. To complicate matters even more, few things are as frustrating as finally getting the person you love to reach for help and be denied that help because of financial constraints, waiting lists at rehabs or detox facilities and other time related delays due to facility operation policies and funding. Discouragement and failed hope turns in to reluctance to reach for help in the future and the problem becomes even bigger and harder to solve accordingly.

With all this it is certain that more efforts need to be expended to educate those addicted about the fact that life can actually be better off drugs and alcohol than on. Further, those addicted need to be educated about the real honest solutions to addiction that do exist and are available to many. And lastly, the families of those addicted would be well advised to keep the will power energized and push through any barriers to getting the person help and be persistent enough to actually see the person admitted into a treatment center that has a proven track record of achieving sobriety and not further frustration.

In the field of addiction treatment there are countless “remedies” and concoctions being prescribed by doctors to “treat” the symptoms of addiction. Albeit, prescribed by Medical Professionals, these elixirs are very high priced, bona fide billion dollar marketed snake oils designed to entice millions to purchase the drugs by promising effortless recovery from the very complex condition known as addiction.

Addiction treatment is, like addiction, fraught with hidden influences, financial absurdities and promotional misleading all mixed in with thousands of people trying to make a difference in the life of an addicted individual.

Addiction treatments can be found in most areas of the United States with a large concentration of facilities coinciding with the larger populations of the U.S. metro areas.