Shrugging at Addiction

Do you have a friend or relative who is struggling with addiction to opioids? Would you even know if they were in the grips of addiction, or are they too embarrassed to admit it?

The opioid crisis has reached epidemic proportion in the good old U.S.A. People are in pain—whether that pain is physical, like post-surgery, or emotional, like the hopelessness and despair that has encompassed whole towns and rural areas in our country. And when you go to the doctor, looking for help with your pain, you are handed a prescription—a legal pathway that can lead straight to addiction. Eventually you are desperate to get more of these miracle pills that take away your pain for the moment, even if they cause more pain in the long run. Or you simply turn to heroin—easy to get, hard to let go of.

It’s a terrible thing to experience, whether in yourself or in a loved one. And “just say no” has been proven, over and over again, not to work, despite the current president saying about drugs, “it’s really, really easy not to take them.”

It’s not easy, but there are ways that will help. Ready my blog in Psychology Today at https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mining-the-headlines/201711/shrugging-addiction and add your comments on my Facebook page; let’s help become the change we all want to see!