Do We Need Another Drug Addiction Treatment Center or Do We Need to Make People Realize They Need Help?

There are a lot of reasons behind the substance abuse problem in Illinois, and in the entire U.S. for that matter, but perhaps one of the most significant is the number of people who don't think they have a problem or, if they do, don't try to get help. The just-released results of the National Survey on Drug Use and Health disclose the details. It's not hard to find an alcohol and drug addiction treatment center in the U.S. - there are thousands of them - but we're obviously going to have to do a lot more than make help available if we want to solve the problem.

According to the survey, about 23 million Americans need help with alcohol or drug addiction or abuse. The drugs include street drugs and abused medical drugs that require a prescription. But 93.6% of the 23 million don't even think they need treatment. In fact, less than 2% of the 23 million thought they needed help and tried to get it. That's 380,000 of 23 million.

Obviously the biggest slice of the substance abuse pie by far is those who think what they're doing is just fine.

Where does this attitude come from? There's such widespread acceptance of drugs and alcohol in the country, it shouldn't really come as a surprise. However, it's quite possible that many of the people who said they don't need help don't really believe it - it's just an attempt to justify their actions.

Regardless of their reasons for denying there's a problem, I would think many others in their lives would disagree. And if they're going to be helped, it's going to be up to those others to make sure they get it. Their parents, spouses, family and friends are going to have to convince them otherwise and get them into an alcohol or drug addiction treatment center. It might be necessary to arrange an intervention; there are alcohol and drug addiction treatment centers that offer intervention as a service or you can go to someone who operates independently.

Whether the problem is with alcohol, street drugs or prescription drug addiction or abuse, you can get them straightened out in a good drug addiction treatment center, and you may save their lives - or the lives of others - by making sure that happens.