Opiate Addiction 2015

Unfortunately, statistics on opiate addiction and abuse are not current, but the American Society of Addiction Medicine, ASAM, has collected information from the most recent studies. What the information shows is disturbing. At NewDay Counseling, we see the reality of opiate addiction on a regular basis. When we decided to manage Suboxone clients, the decision was made not to get more people hooked on Suboxone, but to guide people through the withdrawal and recovery phase in order for the person to become drug free. Most people come to us already taking Suboxone. Too many people are taking Suboxone, then going back to Oxycodone or heroin, then back to Suboxone, seemingly with no end in sight. At NewDay Counseling we’re incorporating counseling, and group therapy if needed, in order to treat problems related to the chronic brain disease of addiction. We treat addiction, whether the addiction is to alcohol, cocaine, pot or opiates.

Opiate addiction is one of the most difficult addictions to treat. It’s very painful for a person to go through withdrawal from opiates without professional help. As a side note, even though opiate addiction is painful, unlike withdrawal from late stage alcohol addiction, it’s not life-threatening in and of itself. Methadone clinics are a testament to how difficult it is to treat opiate addiction — the clinics are basically a management of the addiction, not recovery from addiction. Suboxone is often a better alternative, but even Suboxone can be used as a maintenance drug and the person is not drug free, although Suboxone doesn’t produce the debilitating euphoric state of mind as opiates like heroin, morphine and Oxycontin produce, and the person taking Suboxone can take prescriptions home and not be chained to a regular visit to a clinic.

The goal of addiction treatment should be to become drug-free as soon as possible and to learn how to live well without drugs. Here is some information on opiates from ASAM:

National Opioid Overdose Epidemic

 Over 100 Americans died from overdose deaths each day in 2013vi

 46 Americans die each day from prescription opioid overdoses; two deaths an hour, 17,000 annuallyvii

 While illicit opioid heroin poisonings increased by 12.4% from 1999 to 2002, the number of prescription opioid analgesic poisonings in the United States increased by 91.2% during that same time periodviii

 Drug overdose was the leading cause of injury death in 2013, greater than car accidents and homicideix

 About 8,200 Americans die annually from heroin overdosesx

 About 75% of opioid addiction disease patients switch to heroin as a cheaper opioid sourcexi

 In 2012, 259 million opioid pain medication prescriptions were written, enough for every adult in America to have a bottle of pillsxii

If a vulnerable group of Americans were killed at this rate annually by any other means, there would probably be a great outcry, but we hear next to nothing about this problem in media.