Our Kids Are Still DYING —- 72,000 DEAD!
Horrible, bleak new estimates from the “Centers For Disease Control and Prevention” on overdoses – 72,000 in 2017.
“Drug overdoses killed about 72,000 Americans last year, a record number that reflects a rise of around 10 percent, according to new preliminary estimates from the Centers for Disease Control. The death toll is higher than the peak yearly death totals from H.I.V., car crashes or gun deaths.” – New York Times
If you read the complete article you will also see that “…there are also encouraging signs from states that have prioritized public health campaigns and addiction treatment”. The 2018 numbers are trending down in many parts of the country and the “rate of increase” is slowing overall.
However, 72,000 overdose deaths is staggering.
The New Normal
Unprecedented and hard to wrap your mind around that reality.
Furthermore, we know this is an “addiction epidemic” not an overdose epidemic. As we have discussed before; add in suicide rates and untreated mental health.
Record setting anxiety among young people. Are we still alarmed or are we numb?
Will these results become the new normal?
The response you see from the industry is a doubling down on standard operating procedure. Countless pleas for “more treatment and longer stays”. Countless pleas to the addicted individuals to “call now for help; save yourself”.
The answer to this crisis is not to simply keep shouting “come get help”…
OF COURSE WE WANT YOU TO GO GET HELP. OF COURSE WE WANT YOU TO GO TO A QUALITY TREATMENT PROGRAM. DO IT…GET HELP TODAY. CALL NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Only 10%
But we know only about 10% of people will actually do so.
Are people still thinking that this statistic is a lie?
Do they think the federal government just makes that up?
Do people think that addicted people will all the sudden wake up and go get help because of a Facebook ad or television commercial?
All the sudden the unwilling are going to become willing?
Crossroad as a Nation
We are at a crossroad as a country…a crossroad as a society.
This is not unprecedented. This happens in the course of human evolution. It is not 1972. Things change.
When “rehab” was invented there was no internet, no cell phones, no fentanyl, no 18 year old heroin addicts, no K-2 spice, no kratom, no legal weed, no social media….
I mean, it is insane that the basic procedure and response to this issue remains unchanged.
Basic Procedure
- Tell people they need help
- Tell families not to enable
- Wait until they hit bottom
- Get them to go to treatment
- Get them to go to 90 meetings in 90 days.
Watch them live happily ever after.
This will work if you work it… but what if you don’t?
Holy Cow…. It appears we are going to ride this bus off the cliff.
Addiction is Not a Disease – Really?
Overall Americans don’t think addiction is a disease.
We don’t treat it as a disease. We use the “disease of addiction” as a source of entertainment; TV shows; social media; etc….
We follow addicted people with cameras and document their use.
Document their self destruction and ugly behavior. We turn them into a sideshow.
Our policies do not reflect addiction as a disease. Imagine being an everyday uninformed citizen and coming across your average recovery feed or reality TV show?
Imagine the perception that person comes away with? Those of us in recovery may love to hear what is was like, what happened and what its like now…
But your average PTA member recoils at the “I was living in a dumpster behind Taco Bell” type details.
Addiction and recovery is becoming a circus freak show. Come watch the addicts put themselves on display. Good God.
A Need For Disruption
This industry is in desperate need of disruption.
But change in healthcare is difficult for many reasons and change in the behavioral healthcare space is even more difficult because of the “mysterious” process of getting better and the blurred lines between personal and professional experience.
Perhaps the most significant barrier is the “you’re gonna kill people barrier“.
If you try to do something radically different in this domain people push down the innovation by stating “that’s gonna hurt people; you’re gonna get people killed“.
As if people aren’t already dying?
Disruption implies the creation of something completely new.
Invention vs. innovation. Invention is creating something new. Innovation is tweaking the existing process.
ONCE MORE: TREATMENT WORKS IF YOU GO AND YOU ARE WILLING AND YOU “WORK IT”.
SO CALL NOW… GO GET HELP.
But this is way beyond that willing person… Sorry to be such a buzzkill…
