Addiction: Recovery Story & Statistics
In 2011, 20.6 million people who were older than 12 had an addiction. One hundred people die every day from overdoses, and this number has grown. Over 90% of people with an addiction say that they started on drugs before the age of 18. Addiction can turn a person’s morals inside out and change them completely. That is what happened to Savannah.
Addiction is a powerful force. At the age of 10, Savanna started her drug addiction. With both of her parents being drug abusers, drugs were highly available to her and often provided by her parents. Savanna struggled with depression, and her parents’ verbal and physical abuse turned her in the wrong direction. Her drug problem picked up rapidly and soon she would take anything she could get her hands on. However, her parents never noticed her behaviors. At the age of 13, police removed her from homeless shelter to live with her father. This only furthered her problems since her father was deep into drugs. She ran away from home while high and ended up in Houston, never to return to her father. After contacting an old drug connection, she lived with them for some time, until her grandparents took custody of her. The next night she took a large amount of drugs and ended up being tackled by police and sent to a juvenile center. There she met her counselor, Rudy, who never gave up on her and encouraged her. After some time, she realized she had a problem and wanted to get better. Now three years clean, Savannah looks forward to what the future holds for her.
Phoenix House saved Savannah just as they have helped many others since its founding. In 1967 six people who were addicted to heroin banded together to help each other rise above their addiction. From this, Phoenix House was born. In 1972, Phoenix house became a non-profit organization and is available in 10 states, serving over 5,000 people. In 1983, they opened an academy to help kids who lost educational opportunities to addiction. Phoenix House focuses on rehabilitating teens and adults with addiction problems with many different types of therapy, GED programs and in and out patient facilitated recovery programs. Similar to mental illness, addiction is just as physical as it is mental. Phoenix House dedicates itself to understanding the reason behind the illness and curing it from the root.
Addiction can not only hurt the user, but their family and everyone involved in their life. It can destroy a person’s life. If someone in your life struggles with addiction, inform their family so that they can be placed in a program to help them. If you want to help Phoenix House you can make a contribution on their website.
Works Cited
“True Story: Savannah.” Savannah: A True Story of Addiction, Treatment, and Recovery. Phoenix House, n.d. Web. 07 Mar. 2016.
Smith, Kayla. "Addiction Statistics - Facts on Drug and Alcohol Addiction."Addiction Center Addiction Statistics Comments. Addiction Center, 7 Feb. 2014. Web. 11 Mar. 2016.