Ask anyone who has suffered through addiction, and they will tell you the hardest part is breaking away from that routine. When addicted, it is easy to see every activity through the lens of consumption. Enjoying a sports match? It should be enjoyed with the addicted substance. Taking part in a social occasion? It would be hard to say no to your chosen substance, right?
Sadly, for many, finding the right way to treat addiction is very difficult. Breaking the habit is hard but finding a realistic treatment method that does not treat addicts like criminals is equally as challenging. Therefore so many veer away from trying to get involved with drug treatment. However, another problem that exists within the industry is that many good ideas are left to the wayside because they are imperfect.
Yet, in the complex and often individualistic world of addiction, there is no perfect solution. If there was an easy way, or a uniform way, to solve addiction for everyone then it would already be in place. Now, many discussions around addiction treatment fall apart because ideas are not 100-percent perfect. In addiction treatment, though, it is time to stop leaving good ideas on the table because they might have a potential issue to overcome.
This is a common issue in addiction treatment. Those who provide treatment want to avoid taking the blame or being seen as a contributing factor to someone else’s addiction. And rightly so. Yet many ethical, modern ideas are simply left to the wayside because they do not solve every problem at once.
Treatment must be more pragmatic, and it has to be more taylored to the needs of each person. There is no one size fits all policy for day-to-day addiction treatment.
The need for a change in addiction treatment is essential
Put simply, there is no obvious path to curing addiction. Not everyone manages to make a clean break – indeed, many recovery pathways involve temporary returns. This should not be seen as a negative, as for many people that small return is what they need to make the path walkable. When many addicts try to change their habit and their lifestyle completely, it can be too much to adapt to at one time.
Instead, many addiction treatments advocate for a slower, more gradual step away from addiction. However, despite the clinical information that can support the use of such solutions, many addiction treatment facilities will not consider this as a treatment type. Why? Because it is not perfect.
There is no perfect solution – every person will find their own way to sobriety in their own time, and in their own way. It is important that good ideas and useful solutions for many, but not all, are not left behind or ignored needlessly.
Change is essential to the development of the addiction treatment industry. New information and insights appear all the time that can tell us a lot about how to overcome addiction. Ignoring these ideas because they might only be used for specific people, or because they are not easy to enact, is simply not good enough. People with addictions need treatment, and all treatment options should be considered, trialled, and utilized when suitable.
Citation
https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/forefront.20211221.691862