ESPRITWOMENSHEALTH

It’s hard to really describe substance abuse or addiction to people who haven’t experienced it. That can be from the perspective of someone actually taking those substances. Or it might be from the perspective of a person caught up in the periphery of that addiction.

But one things clear. Addiction is becoming fairly commonplace. One can see it in the continued opioid epidemic. But it’s also clear in other ways. Take alcohol abuse for example. When people talk about drug abuse it usually doesn’t touch on drinking. Smokers are seldom treated as drug addicts either. But alcohol is most certainly substance abuse when it becomes a regular habit. And smoking is one of the most deadly addictions our culture has ever faced.

We’re still not even at a point where we can really talk about addictions. But we can see part of the problem by looking at drinking and smoking. Why aren’t these thought of as drug addiction? It’s usually because both are fairly common within our culture. Even if we don’t smoke we probably know someone who does. If we don’t drink to excess we probably know someone who does. And we might even be uncomfortable having to ask the question of ourselves when we think about how often we do drink.

And this is a significant hint to the question of how our culture relates to drug addiction. We usually think of drug addiction as something that happens to other people. Not even people in our own periphery. But we instead attribute addiction to some nebulous group outside our own social circle or socioeconomic class.

But in reality it’s usually just the way addiction’s presented which changes. Someone in one area might shoot up. While the suburbs some miles away might have housewives sneaking a few extra doses of painkillers from the medicine cabinet. But the core of both situations is opiate addiction. Likewise, there are just as many options for treatment.

The detox process isn’t easy. But help begins by first deciding it’s possible. And that only happens when one looks at his or her community and sees the resources in front of them. For example, consider someone who lives in Everett. They’d do well to first look into drug detoxification Everett WA.

This goes back to the earlier note of how the style of drug abuse changes on a location by location basis. People tend to relate to drug addiction differently depending on their area. By looking for local help one can usually find people going through almost exactly the same experience.

People almost always find it easier to confront their problems when others are experiencing the same thing. We gain strength when we commune with our peers. And, likewise, we can even draw strength by knowing that others are depending on us. But that tends to become harder as social strains or walls begin to appear.

Sadly, these social issues can become more rather than less apparent as the detox process continues. Detox involves a lot of emotion. Most of it should be directed inward. But much will be directed outward as well. And having peers from the same general area ensures that people can work with that emotion rather than against it.