Experience Recovery Blog

When we think of comorbid diseases, we often look for a clear common link, such as with high cholesterol and heart disease. With addiction, however, the links aren’t always so clear. As research is showing, there is a particularly high comorbidity between addiction disorders and bipolar disorder.

The focus of our Orange County Rehab and Detox is about the long-term recovery and success of our patients. No one becomes addicted because their life is too perfect. Addiction is an illness habitually responding to the overwhelming pressures, expectations, and anxieties of our life. The most important aspect of curing addiction isn’t simply taking the drugs and alcohol out of our life because these substances are ubiquitous.

How Addiction Plays a Part

Drug abuse and drug prevalence in the armed forces and among veterans is an unfortunate fact. These men and women are under constant stress, often far from home, with limited access to emotional support from friends and family. Being an Orange County rehab and detox, we often consider how we can be of more service to our veterans in our community.

The War on Drugs was intended to keep Americans safe, sober, and healthy, yet the consequences show anything but. According to drugpolicy.org, the War on Drugs is responsible for $47 billion in spending and resulted in over 1.6 million arrests, 85% of which were simply for possession. This aggressive push to arrest users lead to the US having the highest rate of incarceration in the world. Nearly half of these arrests were African Americans and Latinos. In neighboring Mexico, over 200,000 people were killed as a part of the drug wars.

As an Orange County alcohol rehab and detox, we’ve listened to our community voice their concerns about illicit substances, from how easy they are to attain to how deadly, addictive, and unregulated they can be in our communities. From heroin to prescription opioids and synthetic drugs like spice and bath salts, it’s shocking that drugs with such scary reputations often overshadow the most deadly drug of all, however. A meta-analysis of the death rates, use rates, and societal harm of addictive drugs found that 4 substances were considered “high risk” to individuals, meaning very toxic and easy to overdose on.