Overcoming Substance Abuse

Substance abuse is one of America's major public health problems. In monetary terms, it costs the country $484 billion per year. In human terms, substance abuse is implicated in 10-20 percent of all car accidents and 50 percent of all major crimes, including homicide. Here's where to find help:

To learn about treatment options for virtually all chemical substance, visit Substance Abuse Treatment Facilitator Locator . Sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), this searchable directory of drug and alcohol treatment programs shows the location of over 10,000 facilities around the country that treat alcoholism, alcohol abuse and drug abuse problems.

SAMHSA also hosts the Buprenorphine Physician Locator. Buprenorphine is a drug used to treat opioid addiction. These include heroin, opium, codeine, meperidine (Demerol), hydromorphone (Dilaudid), Oxycontin and others. The Drug Addiction Treatment Act of 2000 limits physicians to prescribing buprenorphine to a maximum of 30 patients at one time. Therefore, some physicians listed on the Locator may not be accepting new patients at this time.

Alcoholics Anonymous® is a nonprofit organization of men and women who help each other solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. There are no dues or fees for AA membership. AA is non-sectarian and non-denominational.

Narcotics Anonymous® follows the Alcoholics Anonymous model in helping its members to overcome drug addiction. A non-sectarian and non-denominational organization, membership is open to all drug addicts, regardless of the particular drug or combination of drugs used. One of the keys to NA's success is the therapeutic value of addicts working with other addicts. Members share their successes and challenges in overcoming active addiction and living drug-free productive lives.

Alateen is part of Al-Anon, which helps families and friends of alcoholics recover from the effects of living with the problem drinking of a relative or friend. Alateen is our recovery program for young people. Alateen groups are sponsored by Al-Anon members. The program of recovery is adapted from Alcoholics Anonymous's twelve-steps approach. The only requirement of membership is that there be a problem of alcoholism in a relative or friend.

Al-Non/Alateen is a companion Web site to the above one, offering a more comprehensive array of services, including versions of its site in English, Spanish and French.

SMART Recovery® helps people recover from all types of addictive behaviors, including: alcoholism, drug abuse, substance abuse, drug addiction, alcohol abuse, gambling addiction, and cocaine addiction. The Smart Recovery program presents itself as an alternative to Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous, where the former eschews the twelve-step approach of the latter organizations.

LifeRing Secular Recovery offers a non-religious approach to treating substance abuse. Just like Smart Recovery, the LifeRing treatment model eschews the twelve-step approach of Alcoholics Anonymous and like-minded organizations. Even so, LifeRing adopts some of AA's tenets, such as by being uncompromisingly abstinent and by rejecting moderation and controlled drinking. It also emphasizes peer group support.