Drug addiction has become the preeminent problem in the U.S. anymore. Around 12 percent of all American children (a stunning 8.3 million) now reside in the care of a parent who is either an abuser of alcohol or illicit drugs at home, per the United States HHS Department of Health and Human Services. This is no joke for the poor children who are born into a family that has a significant history of addiction or drug abuse.
They suffer significantly higher risks of becoming substance abusers later on in their own lives as a result of this upbringing. They can overcome family influence, genetic predisposition, and difficult environments in order to reject substance abuse, but the odds are sadly arrayed heavily against them. The unfortunate statistics reveal that the majority of these forsaken children will become addicts in due time.
Addictions do run within families according to an overabundance of research on the subject. Parents who struggle with drug addiction pass these risk factors on to their hapless children, dramatically raising their odds of abusing drugs (or alcohol) when they become adults. There are two main factors that explain this phenomenon: genetics and environment.
Genetic Predisposition Creates Addicts
It is now all too well established that some individuals have a genetic tendency to become drug addicts. The prevailing myth that addiction is something you choose has been largely discredited. The scientific evidence simply does not support this supposition.
Literally decades of established research demonstrate that drug addiction is an all in the family fact of life. While genetics comprise from 40 to 60 percent of an individual’s risk of becoming an addict, the other roughly half is due to the environment in which a child grows up.
Environmental Factors Also Create Addicts
Sadly, children who witness the abuse of drugs by their family members tend to copy this self-destructive behavior that they witness at home later in their own lives, per a few different scientific studies. There are other home risk factors too. These include the following:
- Pressure from their peers
- Exposure to traumatic events
- Neighborhoods in which they grew up
- A child abuse past
All of these negative influences can also lead a person into the misery of a drug addiction early or later on in his or her life.
The Majority of People Who Go to Drug Rehab Do Not Achieve Recovery Following a 30 Day Stay
Research clearly shows that people can achieve a lasting recovery if they receive the right opportunities in their own life, establish positive connections with society at large, and obtain the right support from family members and friends. Yet the majority of people who fall into addiction find that they can not recover from it after only one simple 30 day stay in rehab.
As far as how successful people (who come from a family history of drug addiction) are in rehab, you should know that no single, universally accepted definition of rehab even exists. It means it is impossible to define a standard metric for how successful addiction centers actually are in curing their patients. A great number of the facilities choose to rank their success rates on many metrics that have proven to be highly unreliable. These include the following:
- Completing a program at the center
- Their sobriety rates of graduates immediately following treatment
- Internally conducted studies
- Exit interviews with their exiting clients
A more realistic approach would be to assign a success level to the quality of care that the given facility delivers. This includes during and after care treatment periods. As a whole, the therapeutic community of drug rehab centers touts a 30 percent success rate. They are just counting those who finish the programs though. By the time the three to six month mark is reached, another 70 to 80 percent of clients have fallen off the wagon and left the program behind for good.
Nowadays, a number of these rehab centers provide alumni programs which encourage the graduates to remain involved in the after care for many years in the future. These programs deliver the needed accountability to members so that they can stay a part of the supporting recovery community. A solid rehab program will assist the individual in connecting with such a community while in treatment. It provides the person with the highest odds of staying sober after departing from the rehab center and program.
In Conclusion
There is no reason to suffer in a continuous downward spiral because of a family history of drug addiction that you can not seem to shake on your own. You are not alone! Call us today to get help at 833-610-1174.