The complications of addiction are seemingly ever increasing for the United States. If it’s not a crack epidemic in the 1980s, then it’s an opioid crisis in the 2010s. Brains are fried, veins are collapsed, and livers are damaged. Alcoholic thinking seems to really hit home for this once great nation that now can’t seem to avoid wrapping its lips around a bottle of cheap booze. The statistics for addiction numbers and overdose have risen dramatically throughout the last few years with 2017 really taking the cake.
The big book of Alcoholics Anonymous reminds us, “Remember that we deal with alcohol- cunning, baffling, powerful”. This disease that seems to be feeding the fateful opioid epidemic in our country is a puzzling one that most can’t stomach for too long. Some stay in their confusing haze for months, while others remain locked down for years, but the quality of life is only consistently downhill. Addiction will eventually lead you right to death’s door or it will make you long for it just to end the insufferable obsession. It’s a beast that feeds off of bread and meat. Either you’re cash or you’re a corpse.
And the Winning Numbers Are…9-1-1
As we struggle thru the strife that addiction brings us, our priorities begin to heavily change. There isn’t any dream of earning a 401K anymore. There isn’t anyone left to be social with. There isn’t any happiness to be found. The little slice of happiness that can be found is jam-packed into a little oblong shaped pill that will only help you forget that happiness exists. Mission achieved?
Human beings are generally adaptive living things and we learn to survive through adversity, but there is only so much survival one can do. While remembering the fault of our stars, this goes hand in hand with remembering that chemical dependency cannot be beaten. It can be put to sleep, it can be forgotten about, but it cannot disappear entirely. There sadly isn’t a red or blue pill that comes with a cure.
Although we can adapt time and time again, eventually we all wither away. Time stops for no mortal man, and neither does the corrosive abilities of chemical dependency. Whether it’s alcohol deteriorating your liver, or your kidneys failing from painkillers, we all succumb to the amalgamation of battle wounds over time.The damage done on the inside is usually irreversible. It’s kind of like having a lottery ticket for death.
The Transplants
In today’s world, death has become jaded for some. Those that have been cursed with the disease of addiction, or know somebody close to them that has, have surely witnessed it prematurely in some form or another. It can’t be escaped. Some medical terms become common vocabulary words. Some of this medicinal lingo includes:
- Heart Failure
- Liver Damage
- Kidney Failure
- Respiratory Arrest
- Blood Poisoning
Any of these are reasons that link to opioid overdoses. In Ohio alone, approximately 8 people a day die from opioid overdose-related causes. The organ donor rates have doubled in the last 3 years in relevance to this opiate disaster going on right now.
Ohio Organs
Ohio’s personal epidemic has surged to unthinkable proportions. Current efforts by the state and it’s governor John Kasich are falling very short. Not short of lack of effort, but short from the concentrated efforts of alcoholic thinking. With the streets constantly flooding in heroin and the pharmaceutical companies constantly pumping out painkillers, the struggle has become very vivid. Essentially the organ donor lists are dwindling because everybody is dying out.
Of course, the DEA and US government have made certain strides, but it’s not enough to stop the organ failure concurrently happening from overdoses. Even with lower amounts of prescriptions being dosed out, this isn’t enough to stop the alcoholic thinking mind of America. A number of people have just turned to heroin in recent years due to the crackdown on painkillers. Often times the overdoses are the result of that that heroin and of those painkillers being mixed in unknown proportions. With the strength of your average bag remaining so volatile, nobody knows what they’re truly ingesting anymore.
The fear of constant overdose has come to a head where it is now required for law enforcement, EMTs, and Firefighters to carry Narcan with them regularly. Narcan is an opiate/opioid overdose reversal drug. It is a synthetic opioid in itself but has a different reaction in the brain than the ones that are zombifying the masses. It helps to bring somebody back who is on their way out from a lethal dosage of opioids. Taking the state in a direction of becoming aware of its services and looking for a solution seems to be the only viable thing to do. The whole country should follow suit on the Narcan matter.
Solution!
The twelve steps coupled along with Alcoholics or Narcotics Anonymous is usually the recommended remedy to lock away the alcoholic thinking that echoes loudly in our heads. These are imperative tools that will help you stay ahead of this never-ending game. Important recovery pieces that will help some individuals avoid winding up on that organ donor list include:
- Sponsorship
- Fellowship
- Volunteering
- Spirituality
- Introspection
These are just a few examples of the things that addicts have to implement into their lives- like it or not. Knowing how alcoholic thinking works while there is this crisis at hand really is the best prevention. At times we may feel that we have bested our addiction, but rest assured it hasn’t gone anywhere. It’s lying on the back burner of your brain waiting to reap. Addiction will harvest your organs without a bathtub of ice- and it’s not pretty. Beware.
Follow Your Heart (Before It’s Gone)
Falling victim to something that makes you feel good is a lot easier than some may give credit for. Addiction looms around the corner for many but in different shapes and sizes. Don’t let this opioid crisis fool you. If you or a loved one has been struggling with getting a firm grasp on sobriety and need detoxification, please call 1-800-481-8457 or visit oarcstaging.wpengine.com. Our teams of specialists are waiting to help figure out what options are best for sending your life is a comfortable direction that you can proudly stand behind.
