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Recovery in the News
Addiction Treatment, Recovery: Making us Whole Again
Staff Writer
The Times of Trenton
September 22, 2009
September marks the 20th National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month. The two decades span a generation of celebrations of our fathers, mothers, sons, daughters and other loved ones who have been returned to us from the torments of addiction. Over the course of the past two decades, tens of thousands of New Jersey families have been made whole again through recovery.
The extraordinary gift of recovery, as anyone knows who has experienced it -- or who has had someone he or she loves restored to them -- is nothing less than a rebirth. Yet, while thousands upon thousands of New Jersey families have been witness to recovery's renewal, there persists in our society the belief that addicts destroy their lives out of choice. This attitude remains despite the fact that one in three families in the state is affected by addiction and that there is longstanding and mounting medical evidence that addiction is a brain disease. As Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., son of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, and himself in recovery, declared, "No one voluntarily chooses to live the sordid, destructive life of an addict."
In many, if not most cases, recovery is preceded by treatment in one form or another, depending on the individual and the severity of the addiction. Treatment is an essential component in releasing individuals from the pull of alcohol or drugs that had supplanted everything they had loved and valued. That crucial element -- treatment -- in too many cases is not available, partly because of the stigma that continues to attach itself to addiction.
The stigma about addiction persists for a number of reasons, one of them being celebrity brushes with alcohol or drug excess and the accompanying media distortions. There is also the paradox of sustained recovery: Too many who find long-term recovery put the experience of addiction behind them rather than step forward to press for more treatment for others. Yet these are precisely the individuals -- those who have come back from despair to rediscover hope and reunite with their families -- who need to speak out if people's attitudes are ever to change. Rep. Kennedy is among the few politicians who have been candid about the trials of addiction and the redemption offered by recovery. His mentor in Congress, the recently retired Rep. Jim Ramstad, R-Minn., proved that recovery is one thing that truly can cross party lines.
The ongoing stigma surrounding addiction translates into policies that make finding recovery all the more difficult. In a broad sense, it has meant that accessing treatment for an alcohol or drug problem is considerably more difficult than being treated for other medical conditions. Last year, with the passage of the federal Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act, a measure co-sponsored in the House of Representatives by the two lawmakers mentioned above, the issue was partially addressed. Still, the insurance lobby is trying to undermine the principles of that law as its regulations are defined.
In New Jersey, the most recent numbers show that 817,000 residents of the state meet the criteria for addiction to alcohol or drugs. Of those, only 7 percent receive treatment. The state's treatment gap is further illustrated by the number who demand treatment, of whom 50,000 are unable to get the care they are seeking because of limited capacity.
New Jersey is one of eight states that is participating in the Closing the Addiction Treatment Gap Initiative (CATG), an advocacy, media and communications campaign designed to enlighten and educate the public and lawmakers that addiction is a chronic disease that responds to care better than a number of other chronic illnesses. The CATG-NJ campaign also stresses the cost to society of allowing addicted citizens to go untreated. We all bear the cost of increased health-care costs, which arise from secondary illnesses and injuries caused by addiction. Further, there is the enormous expense in the criminal justice system; as much as 80 percent of all crimes stem from alcohol and drug use.
President Obama's Recovery Month proclamation recognizes the importance of treatment: "Without treatment, substance use disorders can devastate the mind and body. With treatment, substance use disorders can be managed, giving individuals the effective tools necessary to address their addiction." This is in keeping with the theme of the month-long celebration of recovery: "Together we learn, together we heal."
Without the necessary resources, healing from addiction for too many will not happen. We as a society can either continue to go as we have, maintaining that addicts "are not us" and that addiction befalls only the weak-willed, or we can suspend the instinct for judgment and allow that volition may not have a hand in who is spared the ordeal of addiction and who is not.
Daniel J. Meara is the public information officer for the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence-New Jersey (ncaddnj.org).