Look around the neighborhood you live in. Take a wandering glance around the office you work at. Look closely at everyone you know or have known. As you gander, keep these statistics in mind. 1 out of every 10 are potentially addicted to or some other substance of abuse. While this may seem like a huge exaggeration, consider the following study results.

According to the NSDUH, in 2007, an estimated 22.3 million persons were classified with substance dependence or abuse in the past year. These were all over the age of 12 years of age and that means just fewer than 10 percent of the young adult and adult population suffers from addiction. One could assume that 1 out of every 10 people you meet on the street potentially suffers from addiction to either drugs or alcohol or both. This is a very sobering fact.

With the above facts in mind, we can take a look a little closer to home. When we attend a family function such as a reunion or holiday dinner, we are often reminded of how true the 10 percent data is. Almost everyone has either a child, sibling, parent, cousin, uncle or other familial connection to addiction. We very often are aware that someone in our life has a problem but we just as often resist doing anything about it. We are embarrassed to say something to the person or we don’t want to embarrass them. We get mad at the person for the horrible things we think they have done to the family or we pity the person and don’t feel like they would understand or even admit there is a problem. In short, we let the person continue their addiction and continue to get worse and worse.

In truth, many good people die each year by not having family members or friends who are willing and able to get past their own considerations about the addiction they suffer from and step in and get that person some help. The next thing you know it is too late. A person addicted runs the risk of dying from overdose, fatal accident, suicide, homicide and illness related to their drug or alcohol use more and more every day they use. It may sound trite to say that the person may not have another day but the statistical truth is that they really may not.

The real answer to the problems of addiction start with the addict and those around them who love them. The thing that should occur is to stop for just a moment and decide that this person WILL GET BETTER. To decide that this person WILL RECOVER. To decide that this person WILL LIVE. From there, the logical next step is to relentlessly pursue getting that person the help they need, even if they don’t appear to want it at that moment. An addiction will kill a person with postponement and avoidance of the issue. It is up to the family and friends of that individual to decide that the destructive cycle of addiction ends and it ends now followed up by doing everything possible to make sure that the drug and alcohol rehabilitative tools that are available get applied and recovery is begun. While bad things can still happen, more times than not the person will wind up alive and better solely due to those around them making this decision.

Often, a person addicted and their family can come to view the problem as “the addiction”. The addiction almost appears to be a separate entity, quite apart from the individual themselves. In actual fact this viewpoint is somewhat well founded. A person addicted does crazy things sometimes and behaves in ways the person would previously never behave like.