Addiction is a brain disease that is expressed in the form of compulsive behavior. The precursor to the disease is the voluntary use of drugs or alcohol; over time the chemistry of the brain is changed creating the disease. The symptoms include uncontrollable, compulsive drug craving, seeking, and use, even in the face of negative health and social consequences. An addict cannot stop using drugs or alcohol by sheer force of will alone. Addiction must be treated like other diseases to ensure the maintenance of sobriety.  Maintaining sobriety is a life long process that may include periods of relapse just like any other chronic disease.         

"Substance Abuse is Preventable and Treatable"

Addiction is a chronic disease much like heart disease, diabetes, asthma and hypertension. While lifestyle choices, environmental factors or heredity may influence the onset of these disease, addiction is completely preventable. Prevention programs are effective in communicating the health and social consequences of the behaviors that lead to addiction. They also provide alternatives for people who may tend to gravitate towards substance use and abuse. Treatment programs for addictions are as effective as treatment for other chronic diseases. As with any illness, behavior becomes a critical part of recovery. At a minimum, one must comply with the treatment regimen, which is harder than it sounds. Treatment compliance is the biggest cause of relapses for all chronic illnesses, including asthma, diabetes, hypertension, and addiction. However, treatment compliance rates are no worse for addiction than for these other illnesses.

Mentoring, community coalition building and other prevention programming have been very effective, resulting in the alcohol and drug use of children and adolescents in Iowa dropping to levels that were seen in the early 1990s. Treatment saves lives and money. Thousands of people are injured or die in Iowa from drug or alcohol related diseases and accidents. Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on health care, law enforcement, corrections and human services in Iowa for problems stemming from substance abuse. People in recovery hold jobs, raise healthy children, and pay taxes, and contribute to their communities in a multitude of ways they were unable to do when using drugs and alcohol.

Adapted from the Iowa Substance Abuse Providers Directors Association (ISAPDA) Legislative Agenda.  http://www.isapda.org/legislative.html

  Resources

• Treatment Centers in Iowa - Iowa Substance Abuse Information Center

• Hope For Families by Judy Murphy

• Gender Specific Support Groups

• Moms Off Meth 

• Addiction Can Be Overcome, Study Finds In a September report, the Iowa Consortium for Substance Abuse Research and Evaluation discovered that meth addicts who received treatment had higher abstinence rates six months later than any other group, including alcohol, cocaine and marijuana users. http://iconsortium.subst-abuse.uiowa.edu/new_Projects.html

• Family Matters: Substance Abuse and The American Family - A CASA White Paper, March 2005

• Federal Addiction Caucus Puts Spotlight on Methamphetamine Treatment  "Many state and federal policymakers are aware of the growing problem of methamphetamine use, but the response to date has mostly been to try to contain drug supply. States hit hardest by meth use, such as Hawaii and in the Midwest, have responded primarily through harsher penalties for meth dealers and state laws designed to keep precursor chemicals out of the hands of meth makers. Most recently, for example, states like Iowa have passed laws restricting access to over-the-counter cold medicines that can be used to make methamphetamine."