How many addicts successfully recover from drug addiction?
Question by Maxwell Gee: How many addicts successfully recover from drug addiction?
Those rehab places seem like a revolving door. What percentage of drug addicts who’ve been addicted to hard drugs for at least one year successfully recover from their addiction the rest of their lives?
1 in 6
no one has a real answer to that. If i had to guess I would say less than 5 percent. quit for good. 20 percent become jump on and off drugs and the rest do whatever they want.
70% Success Rate
Narconon Freedom Center is the most successful addiction treatment program in the country, with a history of an astounding 70%+ success rate. That means that more than 3 out of 4 of our graduates leave clean, and stay clean. This far exceeds that success rate of traditional 12-step programs and other alternative methods of addiction treatment
Narconon is a Scientology front. Their claims are just that, claims. I have yet to see a single SCIENTIFIC study of their program.
Over 90% of all rehabs in the US are 12step based (AA/NA). The rest are mostly Narconon or heavily religious. AA/NA have about a 5% success rate, the same as people quitting on their own. But many, many more quit without ever visiting rehabs, AA, or NA.
It all boils down to motivation.
“There is a high rate of recovery among alcoholics and addicts, treated and untreated. According to one estimate, heroin addicts break the habit in an average of 11 years. Another estimate is that at least 50% of alcoholics eventually free themselves although only 10% are ever treated. One recent study found that 80% of all alcoholics who recover for a year or more do so on their own, some after being unsuccessfully treated. When a group of these self-treated alcoholics was interviewed, 57% said they simply decided that alcohol was bad for them. Twenty-nine percent said health problems, frightening experiences, accidents, or blackouts persuaded them to quit. Others used such phrases as “Things were building up” or “I was sick and tired of it.” Support from a husband or wife was important in sustaining the resolution.”
Treatment of Drug Abuse and Addiction — Part III, The Harvard Mental Health Letter, October 1995.
Many people abuse drugs and/or alcohol in their teens and early twenties and “mature out”, they quit or learn to moderate once faced with adult responsibilities.
The NIAAA’s 2001–2002 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions interviewed more than 43,000 people using questions based on criteria for alcohol dependence in the DSM-IV and reported:
“About 75 percent of persons who recover from alcohol dependence do so without seeking any kind of help, including specialty alcohol (rehab) programs and AA. Only 13 percent of people with alcohol dependence ever receive specialty alcohol treatment.”
The deal is a lot of people do recover, but there is a high number of relapse. Most assume that they are “cured” and start hanging out or doing things that will expose them to drugs again.
The few that have succeeded and kept it off are very proactive. They continue to talk to people that are still struggling with the drug problem at least once a week to try to help them.
It is also therapeutic for them as it reminds them of what they went through to wean themselves off drugs, and an encouragement never to go back to drugs again.
Depends on the drug. Anyone who uses meth, especially if they smoke it or shoot it, will probably do it for the rest of their life. I shot speed for 10 years straight. I sort of quit a few times, but would always end up going back at some point. Now I do it only a few times a year. One of the reasons I can stay away from it for extended periods of time is because I quit self-medicating my ADD with street speed, and finally found a doctor who would take me seriously. He prescribed me real methamphetamine which I’ve been taking for 2 years now. I take it only as prescribed and I lead a normal and healthy life. I eat, sleep, and work. I still have all of my teeth. I have a great career and a wonderful family life. I’m so grateful for prescription meth. Without it, I would be homeless, dead, or in jail. My own personal motto is “Get off speed, and get on speed.” I really wish that more research effort was put into this concept. I strongly believe that the majority of tweekers are simply self-medicating. When I was using, I put myself through college and managed to hold down a job for an extended period of time. I shot 50 units every morning, and at night I would smoke pot, force myself to eat, and take Trazadone, Ambien, and Kolonapin in order to go to sleep. Then I would wake up and do it all over again and show up to the office completely geeked out of my mind. I was a complete closet tweaker. Eventually, my little routine became too much to handle and lost everything. My job, my house, and my sanity. It was just too difficult trying to maintain like that. The potency was always different; sometimes too strong, sometimes not strong enough. Sometimes I was too high to focus on anything at work, sometimes I was falling out my desk. It was really hit and miss (no pun intended). Getting on prescription meth changed my life though. I guess I’ve defied the statistics. I don’t know the actual percentage of successfully recovering from drug addiction, but I know I did it. And I’m sure some people may try to say I’ve switched addictions, but if that was truly the case, I’d be abusing my meds, but I don’t. In fact, I usually take LESS than I’m supposed to, and I rarely take it on the weekends. I basically on use it to focus while I’m at work. Which is what I was trying to do all along.
I can’t say that there is a specific number of people that do do drugs that end up clean. It is hard to stay sober after you have gotten an addiction. I also had an addiction to Meth. I wasn’t on it for 10 years but I did end up losing everything because of it. I smoked it everyday most days all day long. I am now sober and working on getting a degree in substance abuse counseling. While the average numbers of people that get clean and stay clean are unknown. It is very important that people know that it is possible to do. It takes time and effort and it is not an easy road but it is worth it to have your life back.
I was a heroin addict for close to 30 years, with no veins left and close to death. In Jail at 45 years old I was introduced to Narcotics Anonymous and tho it took a year and one last try at control, it has now worked wonderfully for 19+ years of wonderful recovery.
It’s the only thing that works, medicine, religion, psychiatry, none of these methods are sufficient.
The cold hard Truth is – without a program heroin addicts WILL die from their disease. WELL over 95% of heroin addicts will die from it. ALL my junkie friends are dead. And methadone or the other substitute drugs are NOT a program and will not save the life of a heroin addict.
The lie is dead – we do recover, but without a program such as NA we will certainly die from our addiction. ALL my friends are dead – I live Happy, Joyous, and Free. I have a new wife, family, my first child, I travel, I live my dreams and my “bucket list” is complete.
After over 19 years – I still attend meetings 3 or more times a week and always will.
Thank you Narcotics Anonymous.
If you have a family member or loved one – the ONLY hope for them is NA and anyone that tells you different has a vested interest in telling you that, and it simply isn’t true.
Ray is not my real name – I have no motive other than helping because no addict need ever die. I pray for addicts to find Narcotics Anonymous – the ONLY place you find happy endings for addicts.
I want to find info of the type of time line, in general of course. I’ in the process of foing to court to get custody over my beatiful grand child. My daughter has been heavely involved in hard drugs mosdtly crack has shot up also on numerous times, and I don’t know what more there is but this is enough to make an enquiry. Is there an soft stats out there giving a save time to explyer the possibility of she being able to take care of her child alone.
NA is most certainly not the only way and you are absolutely not “doomed to fail” without it. 12 step programs have a success rate of about 5%, the same as the spontaneous remission rate and it has been scientifically proven that AA/NA leads to destructive binge using and gives addicts justification for their excesses by claiming they are powerless over it. I am an addict and have been clean from Heroin for a substantial length of time and I did it on my own using motivation enhancement programs like SMART.
I have been an addict myself, but a different cercumstances lead me to myself getting clean! Then there is my family, every person that has been in my life since I was a child has been on some type of drug! Which some of them have gotten clean and stayed that way for quit some time, but at some point in time all of them have relapsed! Which at some point can break the family members of this person down with them! I try so hard to believe that maybe one day I will have some what of a healthy family, but at this point I really don’t have to much faith left! I have had my family members steal from me and take things from my children to sell and sometimes I think that they honestly don’t remember doing it! Some times I see all of this as just selfishness, if I got clean why can’t they, then I think back to when I was smoking crack and I remembered how fast time seemed to go by and how much time actually pasted before I even realized I was an addict! I guess my advise is to put distance between yourself and the addict, its the best thing for yourself! If they need you for anything other than drug money than they know how to get ahold of you! Stop giving money and opportunities to get stolen from and let them know that you love them and thats almost all a person sitting on the side lines praying as much as they can, can do! God Bless and go on with your own life and maybe some day they will catch up!