Addiction is a lonely disease: this is your belief. It’s not meant to be shared among strangers, offered to the world. It’s not to be confessed, proven with words and sad actions. Instead it’s to be a secret — a carefully hidden shame, tucked inside the recesses of your daily life. You’re never to speak of it. You’re never to admit it. Its existence is merely to be denied, deemed impossible and trapped within your mind. This is the way of things and it can never change.
You find yourself wishing it could, however. The burden of battling addiction on your own is quickly becoming too much to bear — it’s a struggle to maintain a grin when you’re worried about dependency. You want… help. You simply think it can’t be found.
It can.
Too often do individuals assume that their afflictions are meant to be suffered alone. Addiction — they’re certain — is to be dealt with carefully; and no others are to learn of it. But such thoughts are both unkind and unfair. Substance abuse is not to be shielded. It’s instead to be admitted… with rehab sought by all.
Rehab (the common shortening of rehabilitation centers) is the process of treatments, therapies and support. It offers individuals the opportunity to learn of their disease, discovering its effects and potential devastations. And with knowledge comes the drive to heal — with unique procedures and medications offered to help transition all addicts back into society. Stability is provided; temptation is removed; and a detoxification process can be begun by all.
This cannot occur, however, when rehab is refused.
Of the 20 million individuals estimated to suffer from abuse each year, it is believed that only five percent of these will seek treatment. Most will think it to be unnecessary (or will worry about the implications of receiving help, how it will affect their families). This is a staggering — and all too sad — number that must be changed.
Rehabilitation isn’t to be denied. It’s instead to be understood as vital — and all must seek it out immediately.