Recovery From Addiction Happens

As with most major problems, we all talk about the dramatic failures, the tragedies, the deaths and near-deaths. Hardly ever do we focus on the positive, the turn-around, the accomplishment, the recovery. Addiction is an awful, chronic brain disease that causes much pain, sorrow and premature death — addiction tears apart families, ruins careers, damages children, ends friendships, fills the prison system to overflow, yet addiction is treatable and recovery happens — addiction recovery happens all the time in just as dramatic fashion as the failures. Success depends on quality treatment and ongoing Recovery Management.

Through the years since I started in the addiction treatment field in 1983, I’ve witnessed recovery in people I thought never stood a chance. People often ask me how a person can work in a field filled with such sadness and loss, and I say it’s also filled with redemption, hope, change and recovery.

Addiction treatment has been criticized by many, who should know better, for not working, yet addiction treatment works as well as treatment for many medical conditions, such as diabetes and hypertension and unhealthy weight problems. Just as many addicts drink alcohol or use drugs during the first year after treatment as people who get off their diets or treatments for other medical conditions that require responsible adherence to treatment regimens. When a person follows the addiction treatment recommendations, recovery happens — when people leave treatment and don’t follow up with their Recovery Management Plan, then they usually relapse.

However, relapse is not necessarily failure, just like the diabetic who goes off her treatment is not doomed to death — the recovering person can use relapse to learn what not to do next time. This is from NIH:

Relapse rates for addiction resemble those of other chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and asthma.

Like other chronic diseases, addiction can be managed successfully. Treatment enables people to counteract addiction’s powerful disruptive effects on the brain and behavior and to regain control of their lives. The chronic nature of the disease means that relapsing to drug abuse is not only possible but also likely, with symptom recurrence rates similar to those for other well-characterized chronic medical illnesses—such as diabetes, hypertension, and asthma (see figure, “Comparison of Relapse Rates Between Drug Addiction and Other Chronic Illnesses”)—that also have both physiological and behavioral components.

Unfortunately, when relapse occurs many deem treatment a failure. This is not the case: Successful treatment for addiction typically requires continual evaluation and modification as appropriate, similar to the approach taken for other chronic diseases. For example, when a patient is receiving active treatment for hypertension and symptoms decrease, treatment is deemed successful, even though symptoms may recur when treatment is discontinued. For the addicted individual, lapses to drug abuse do not indicate failure—rather, they signify that treatment needs to be reinstated or adjusted, or that alternate treatment is needed (see figure, “Why is Addiction Treatment Evaluated Differently?”).