Substance abuse is a product of our times and usually it is nothing more than high jinks and people who indulge are quite able to indulge and then stop. Socially it is acceptable to have a drink or 2 in a social setting. Stopping after work with your colleagues at a bar is normal. Cocktail parties are normal, so is drinking beer at parties or barbeques. It is apparently also quite normal to have an Ecstasy tablet if you are at a nightclub. If one's friends spread some white powder on a mirror and divide it up one is regarded as a party pooper or a goody two shoes or a wimp if one does not sniff a line. The availability of alcohol is licensed and taxed, drugs are illegal but are freely available on all campuses, street corners, prisons. They aren't taxed and there is no quality control on their production, their contents and what is used to cut them down from their full strength to the "baggies" that are sold on street corners, or the tablets that one gets at nightclubs and the like. What is similar about them is that abusing them can and often does lead to a problem. The incidence of alcoholism per person who drinks is fairly low when compared to the incidence of drug users who get into trouble from overuse. But it is still there. It is when one does become dependent on either a drug or on alcohol that the need for a cure comes into play. Some people do manage to wean themselves from a problem but they are the exception. The success rate for smokers trying to quit smoking is very low, even with the patches and nicotine is a very mild drug. The first step has always got to be acknowledgement on one's own that there is a problem and that they need help. This is a much bigger step than would seem apparent at first as there is usually a major amount of self denial involved. But once that step has been take and the user accepts that they have a problem and need help to get better then there are a few options, but by far the most successful of these is checking into a managed residential drug rehabilitation centre. There are many of these around and care should be taken as to the one chosen. Curing an addiction is not only about breaking the physical dependency, although that is very important to do, it is about treating the reasons for the dependency and giving one the spirit and strength to continue to live without once the addiction treatment is complete. In order to achieve this objective the drug rehab has got to include the medical monitoring of the detoxification process, which can be incredibly physically draining, but once there the individual needs a huge amount of support to live a sober and drug or drink free life. Part of this is a continual psychological therapy assisted by group work and individual counseling where appropriate. Part of it is changing life style, places where one hangs out and companions. But most important is to treat the whole problem, not just one or two apparent aspects of it.
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