Addiction Medicine
Substance abuse is often covered in shame, denial and secrecy. But it’s a problem that doesn’t just touch the lives of people who use alcohol or drugs. It affects their families, friends and community members, classmates and coworkers. According to the Federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, more than 22 million, or 9 percent of Americans age 12 and older have struggled with addiction to alcohol or drugs in the past year.
“It’s a massive problem,” says Scott Teitelbaum, M.D., University of Florida associate professor of pediatrics and psychiatry and medical director of the Florida Recovery Center. “Addiction is one of the nation’s major health problems, if not the number one health problem.”
Addiction is a brain disease which results from continued compulsive alcohol or drug use despite numerous, obvious, harmful consequences. It’s generally a chronic and relapsing disease without a specific cure. However, sustainable recovery is possible. Proof of that are the thousands of patients who have fully recovered and returned to healthy, happy lives after addiction treatment from University of Florida’s Florida Recovery Center.
“A critical issue of treatment is to help patients develop new, non-drug coping strategies to deal with life’s pain, both physical and emotional,” Teitelbaum says. “Treatment, contrary to what most people think, isn’t just about not doing drugs.”
UF has set the standard for addiction medicine in Florida by providing evidence-based, effective care supported with the professional resources necessary to aid continued recovery. Teitelbaum, a national expert, and his team of health care providers at the Florida Recovery Center offer multidisciplinary treatment of alcoholism, substance abuse, pain management, eating disorders and obsessive compulsive disorders. Addiction medicine staff at the Center includes the largest group of specially trained physicians in any academic center, as well as nurses, therapists and counselors.
“I’ve had the privilege and honor of treating poor people from the streets to treating professional athletes, judges, and physicians,” Teitelbaum says. “All of them, whether from New York, San Francisco or Gainesville, come here for help. We helped set the standard and care passionately about evaluation, treatment, and long-term recovery.”
Young and old are affected and have received successful addiction treatment at Florida Recovery Center. An active alumni group helps patients maintain their recovery. And the Center also offers recovery support groups specially created for students, health care providers and business professionals struggling with addiction.
No one who comes into the Florida Recovery Center treatment programs ever says they took prescription medications or smoked or started taking drugs with the idea that they would become addicted. They usually can tell you when they started, but cannot tell you when they lost control and became an addict. Addiction, untreated though, is often fatal.
Treatment works but the user has to take part in the program in order for it to do so. In addiction treatment, there is nothing more critical or important in the long run, than a person’s motivation to change. But it takes years for drugs to change a person and it can take years for them to return to their old self. Our work with impaired health professionals has helped us understand that treatment and recovery are difficult, involve time, energy and effort. The best outcomes are found when the treatment can be given for years.
With impaired physicians, nationwide, treatment has been very successful and it is expected that over 80% of the treated MDs can be drug free and back to work.
Science has helped us understand dependence and withdrawal. While now commonplace, successful treatments for withdrawal have not cured addiction. If detoxification cured addiction, we would have cured alcoholism decades ago. Scientists have even come to understand that withdrawal is not necessary for addiction to occur and that elimination of withdrawal, while a first step, is not sustainable recovery. Prevention is the single most effective “treatment” but often ignored or misunderstood. Early intervention and prevention are critical to recovery and survival. Focus on prevention and intervention should help everyone understand the importance of fighting stigma and denial. No one knows who can use alcohol or drugs and stop. Or who will progress to addiction.
If you know someone who needs help to find the strength to quit, to go to an AA meeting, find treatment, and recovery – please consider intervening. Everyone knows someone who has been in addiction treatment and for whom recovery has worked. Unfortunately, recovery is personal and is anonymous. It is up to all of us to prevent, de-stigmatize and intervene.