What Percentage Of Addicts Stay Clean?

What Percentage of Addicts Stay Clean?

When a Hollywood celebrity or Washington politician is arrested for driving under the influence or prescription shopping, the media presents story-after-story on substance abuse disorders. Many times the people in the news have been on-and-off the substance abuse ride for years. It causes people to wonder what percentage of addicts stay clean after going through detox and rehab. WhiteSands Treatment Center in Fort Myers, FL helps people to get off the substance they are addicted to and teaches them how to stay clean.

A basic knowledge of addiction makes it easier to understand the challenges a substance abuser faces when struggling to stay clean. There are some facts people should know.

1. Addiction is not a respecter of human life. It doesn’t care about your age, gender, race, education, or socioeconomic status.
2. Addiction is a disease and not a matter of choice. No one knows if their first drink will start a downward spiral into alcoholism. No one knows the pain pill they are prescribed following surgery is going to cost them their job. Teenagers succumb to the pressure of their peers to have a drink or pop a pill, and for some it is the end of their emotional freedom.
3. Addiction is treated as shameful and immoral, and that attitude prevents people from addressing their disease when it first presents itself. Society as a whole must change this thinking. Addicts think their friends will abandon them, they will lose the respect of colleagues, and their family will no longer love them.
4. Treatment and counseling are the best options for people suffering with addiction. We don’t jail people for having cancer or heart disease, and we shouldn’t jail everyone who is suffering from addiction.
5. Money and privilege may protect people from the public’s knowledge of their disease for a time, but it can’t cure them. When they overdose, and sometimes die, the whole world hears about it.
6. Substance abuse treatments do work. Addicts can and do recover and go on to live happy and productive lives.

Odds Of Drug Addicts Staying Clean

Family members of addicts look for reassurances that their loved ones will be able to remain clean once they complete detox and rehab. What are the odds of drug addicts staying clean? It’s important to remember, that like any disease, addiction needs ongoing treatment. Group therapy and counseling offer tremendous support to the recovering addict. Many times a dual diagnosis was determined at the time the individual first entered treatment. In this case both the addiction and the emotional issue must be treated as one can feed the other. An extensive eight-year study of 1200 addicts followed their journey in recovery to determine if they were able to maintain their clean life. The following determinations were made:

• Approximately one-third of people who are abstinent less than a year will remain abstinent.
• Of those who achieve a year of sobriety, less than half will relapse.
• Less than fifteen-percent of those remaining clean for five years will relapse.

When individuals check into an addiction treatment center, they do more than get clean. Rehab provides them with the emotional tools and knowledge they need to stay clean.

Opiate Addiction Recovery Statistics

There is an opiate epidemic in the US, and the numbers of people abusing prescription painkillers is staggering. The opiate addiction recovery statistics are not as good as with other drugs. In fact, no other drug has as high a chance of addiction relapse as opiates. One study (Smyth, B. P., Barry, J., Keenan, E. & Ducray, K. – 2010) found as many as ninety-one percent of users in recovery will experience relapse. The same study determined at least fifty-nine percent would experience opiate relapse in the first week of sobriety, and eighty percent would relapse within thirty-days of completing a detox program.

In spite of the numbers of addicted Americans, thousands are getting help and recovering. Your family member can be one of the recovered addicts who are living fulfilling lives. Call White Sands Treatment Center in Fort Myers and help turn your loved one’s life around.

If you or a loved one needs help with abuse and/or treatment, please call the WhiteSands Treatment at (877) 855-3470. Our addiction specialists can assess your recovery needs and help you get the addiction treatment that provides the best chance for your long-term recovery.