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Addiction - Treatments And Failings Of Said Treatments Essay

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Addiction – Treatments and Failings of said Treatments.

In order to discuss the treatments for addiction and the failings thereof, we need to start by defining what addiction is. Once we’ve done so then we will discuss the different treatments available. Only after all this will we discuss the failings of the programs. While a major part of this paper is based on the cited works, some part of it is based on personal experience. I have struggled with addiction in the past, thankfully I’ve been clean for 15 plus years. Some very close friends have also struggled with addiction and sadly some have died because of it. I work as a Paramedic and see the results of addiction very regularly. The United States, and a lot of other countries, is in the midst of the worst Heroin and Prescription Drug abuse epidemic ever.

Addiction is defined as follows by Merriam-Webster
• : “a strong and harmful need to regularly have something (such as a drug or alcohol) or do something (such as gamble).”
• : “an unusually great interest in something or a need to do or have something.”

Treatments for addiction
A. Twelve-step program
1. Admission of one’s inability to control the addiction and that our lives have become unmanageable.
2. The belief that only a power greater than we can restore us – For most programs in the US that reference Christianity and God as the higher power. I shall refer to this Higher Power also as God in keeping with my own belief system.
3. A conscious decision is

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