Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Ready to Quit?

There is help for those who are ready to kick their addiction, but only if you are lucky.

Are you ready to quit drugs and alcohol and reclaim your life?

If you are lucky, you are ready at the same time a bed in a rehab facility is available. Otherwise, you have to wait until a bed opens up. Good luck, not dying from your addiction while you wait.

When a bed opens up, insurance will pay for it. If you have no insurance, there is funding available, but that funding of addiction programs happens only once a year, in January, and is good only until the money runs out, usually by September or October. That means if you decide to kick your addiction anytime from Halloween through the end of the year, there will be no money for your treatment. Good luck, staying alive until the program is re-funded on New Year's Day.

One out of four people who have to take long-term medically-prescribed pain medication for legitimate purposes ends up addicted. When they realize it, they need help immediately.

Even children from loving families may try drugs, and some become addicted while their peers do not.

When you or a loved one realize it is time to fight an addiction, help is not always available. In this political year, please make sure your candidates are fighting for your right to treatment in case you or a loved one develop an addiction. Demand full funding for addiction services. Demand more beds in rehab facilities be made available, just as we demand beds in hospitals be available when it is time to deliver a baby.

I am not an addict, but it seems to me that it should be a basic human right to obtain treatment to free yourself from addiction, which could happen in any family.