addiction and its consequences

By Manuel C.

Close to 95,000 people die each year from alcohol related deaths in the United States alone, making it the third-leading preventable cause of related death in the United States, says the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Another estimated 70,000 people also die from drug related deaths each year. With the death toll of the two of these addictive substances combined, that's nearly 165,000 Americans dead every year.

People like Amanda Goodall, who was once addicted to drugs, have experienced this dilemma first hand. When asked as to how she got addicted, she states, “When I started experimenting with drugs, I was about 16. I started smoking pot here and there and it escalated as things got worse at home. Cocaine, to methamphetamine, to alcohol, to anything you could think of really and it just escalated from there.”

Alcohol and substance abuse has been a huge prominent problem for decades. The issue is very well known, yet not much progress has been made to resolve the issue for good. Efforts have been conducted in an attempt to gain more recognition of the fact that alcohol and substance abuse needs to be addressed, yet in these days during the pandemic, alcohol and substance abuse has only gotten worse according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

According to “Excessive Drinking Kills 1 in 10 Americans,” from The Daily Beast, 10 percent of deaths that occur in the United States every year in people between the ages of 20-64 are either alcohol or drug related. Especially during the pandemic, these numbers have only gotten higher, as the average age of substance abuse gets lower.

Studies made over the past 20 years have also unveiled more information about alcohol and substance abuse. This information includes the type of demographic in America as to who is addicted to alcohol or drugs and the reasons why people are addicted, which show that really anyone and anybody can be addicted and how one person could possibly have drastically different consequences than someone else. The results also demonstrate how the consequences of addiction can vary heavily depending on race/ ethnicity and age.

As stated in “Research Conducted at Oregon State University has Provided New Information About Drug Abuse,” from the Mental Health Weekly Digest, “Risk factors associated with substance use and abuse have been shown to vary by race/ethnicity as well as age.”

According to the articles in the Weekly Mental Health Digest, people’s addictions are affected by the way they are raised and cared for. A statement from “Researchers from University of California Publish New Studies and Findings in the Area of Alcoholism”, by the Weekly Mental Health Digest says, “Early environmental trauma alters neurodevelopmental trajectories that can predispose an individual to a number of neuropsychiatric disorders, including substance abuse.”

However, alcohol and substance abuse doesn’t affect a specific group of people in particular. Erick Goodall from Global Teen Challenge explains, “It varies. It’s really anybody and everybody. For myself, I came in when I was 24 years old. I was a momma’s boy. I lived at home and I didn’t have any friends. I was never a gangbanger, I never ran the streets or was homeless, and then for other people: in and out of jail, stolen cars and gangbangers and lived that whole life of gang and violence and prostitution...there is a wide range of backgrounds: ethinicities, age groups, men, woman, teens, even children, all of that.”

Even with the significant problem of alcohol and substance abuse at hand, programs like Global Teen Challenge have been working through and thin to help people recover from their addiction.

Global Teen Challenge is a world wide network of Christian faith-based corporations that are working together to provide rehabilitation services and guidance to those who are struggling with addiction.

Source: Credits to Google Maps (Teen Challenge Asbury Family Center )

Goodall states, “We try to show them that there is a better way to cope with life’s problems or the circumstances that we go through, rather than drugs and alcohol, rather than smoking the bong or drinking beer, whatever it may be. There is a better way to cope with the struggles that we go through rather than drugs and alcohol.”

Goodall provides insight into rehabilitating those who are addicted and tells about his own experiences with addiction as well.

When asked as to why he has dedicated himself to helping those who have been affected by addiction, Goodall responds with, “What made me want to come help people overcome their addiction was going through addiction myself and knowing how bad it was and how much it ruined my life. I really wanna press in and I really wanna help people not go down the same path I went down. “

Erick Goodall follows up with this response declaring, “It’s really fulfilling. It really makes me feel good about myself, like I’m actually doing something. Helping people not get addicted or helping people through addiction, it just makes me feel like a better person. It makes me feel like doing something good rather than doing something for myself.”

Even though addiction still remains to be a prevalent problem to this day, people like Erick Goodall are doing what they can to combat the issue. Hopefully some time in the future, addiction will no longer affect as many people as it does now. Programs like Global Teen Challenge, which have facilities all over the world, will always be present to help anyone through addiction.