Substance Abuse in the U.S.
Substance abuse is a major public health problem that impacts society on multiple levels. Every family and community is affected by alcohol and drug abuse and addiction, either directly or indirectly. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), substance abuse costs our nation more than $484 billion each year. When you compare that to the national annual costs of other chronic diseases, such as cancer at $171.6 billion and diabetes at $131.7 billion, the number is alarming.
The Enterhealth Story
Enterhealth was built to better the community and help its citizens fight drug abuse and addiction. The founders of Enterhealth were motivated to take action when they realized how rampant addiction had become – even in their own neighborhood. They set out on a mission to research the issue and found that traditional treatment programs, still based on a twelve-step program first established in 1935, failed more than 80 percent of the time.
As a result, the founders decided to create a different type of addiction treatment program, one that would provide much better outcomes and could really help people recover and sustain sobriety.
Enterhealth offers a science-based alcohol and drug addiction treatment program that was created by a team of recognized medical experts in the field of addiction. The program, which is grounded in the latest research by the NIH that identifies addiction as a chronic brain disease, is implemented by addiction-trained doctors, nurses and masters/PhD-level therapists, and begins with a thorough medical and psychological assessment designed to create a personalized treatment plan for each patient. This approach is completely unique in the industry, and has consistently proven to be at least three times more effective than traditional programs.
National Substance Abuse Prevention Month
As we approach the end of National Substance Abuse Prevention Month, which promotes the prevention of alcohol and drug use, Enterhealth wants to congratulate and applaud all those who work hard every day on their recovery and to prevent relapse.
Here are encouraging words from some of our alumni:
“I have a new circle of friends that I will cherish for a lifetime and only hope in my heart!” – JE
“I feel that I will be very successful in my journey of sobriety.” – CW
“I am so thankful to have the joy of living back so I can enjoy life with my family.”
– GS
“Each step I have made has led me in the right direction, helped me become stronger and opened my eyes to recovery and a better life in sobriety.” — AB
Relapse Prevention Tips
Education, life skills and designing individualized relapse prevention plans are all imperative to maintaining recovery and living a healthy, balanced life, but staying addiction-free takes a lot of hard work and dedication. Some general guidelines for avoiding relapse include:
- Avoid tempting situations – Sometimes a person in recovery wants to prove to themselves or others that they can be around substances and not use. While one may be able to avoid temptation in that moment, this may not always be the case, especially for those in early recovery. Going places where there will be substance use can be reminders of those times and serve as emotional triggers, so should be avoided.
- Develop a positive support network – Often, addiction social circles include others who have addiction issues with supportive family and friends being in the distance. Persons in recovery should surround themselves with positive people who do not engage in substance use and support a substance-free lifestyle. It’s important to have healthy people to provide support. Ties to unhealthy people and relationships should be severed.
- Create a healthy schedule – Patients in a residential care facility, such as Enterhealth Ranch in Van Alstyne, Texas, are required to follow some type of schedule as part of learning and rebuilding life skills. By creating a schedule for use as an outpatient, the patient is able to continue that structured living. The schedule typically includes times for outpatient treatment and meetings, necessary activities such as work or family time and daily living and free time. When scheduling free time, it is important that constructive activities be identified to fill that time. The key is to not allow time for frequent boredom.
- Don’t get complacent – Many are highly motivated after completing an inpatient program to continue in an outpatient program, but this motivation usually begins to drop over time and, as progress continues, they no longer see all of the recovery efforts and activities as necessary. Since addiction is a chronic brain disease, however, medical and psychological treatment must continue, just as you would for other chronic diseases such as diabetes or high blood pressure.
All people are different and have their own distinct set of medical and psychological issues. They need to find a recovery program that works for them – one that is able to provide a personalized treatment plan – in order to give them the best possible opportunity for a lifelong recovery.
