Time is Running Out – For Someone

Here is a grim statistic about drug overdose in America. Look at your watch, check the time.

Someone in the United States is most likely dying right now, this very moment, from a drug overdose.  Another person will die in seven and a half minutes.  Eight people will die of a drug overdose in this hour.  The shocking statistics show that about 192 people die every day in the United States from drug overdoses.

Deaths from drug overdose continue to rise despite ongoing prevention efforts.  Part of the reason is the ever-stronger medications that are developed and have become available.  Those medications, when used appropriately, can be beneficial to people who are suffering severe pain from traumatic injuries or extreme disease.

Too often, however, those medications are used recreationally and the results can be, and often are, fatal.  Almost any person you meet, knows of someone who has died from drug overdose.

In active addiction the need for the substance overrides the instinct for survival.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), from their most recent compiled reports, more than 70,200 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2017.  Those deaths included both illicit drugs and prescription opioids.  That number is twice as many as the previous decade.
Watch Video: A guest at Gulf Breeze Recovery shares her personal experience with overdose.

Prescription opioids alone resulted in 47,600 overdose deaths in 2017.

According to the CDC, their definition of “any opioid” includes prescription opioids (and methadone), heroin and other synthetic narcotics (mainly fentanyl). Those opioids alone resulted in 47,600 overdose deaths in 2017.   Opioid drug overdose deaths rose from 8,048 in 1999 to 47,600 in 2017.  Of that total, about twice as many overdose deaths are men than women.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) states that the misuse of and addiction to opioids – including prescription pain relievers, heroin, and fentanyl is a national crisis.  They report that emergency room visits, and deaths related to opioid overdose have more than quadrupled in the last 15 years and continues to rise.

The potential risk for overdose with these drugs cannot be overstated.  It is important that people are educated to understand the risks involved and seek help if struggling with opioid addiction.

If you, or someone you know is struggling with addiction, contact us or call: 833.551.2356 to speak to an addiction expert to learn more about our program that has helped so many people overcome their addiction and embrace life.

We help people not just to survive, but to THRIVE®.