Drug addition is a serious issue. There are many statistics out there about drug addiction. It can be a serious issue in the eyes of society though many people see it as a crutch or people who cannot make good choices that benefit their well-beings. Many who are jailed are jailed on drug charges. It allegedly can damage families and hurt people.

There are those, as said above, that see drug addiction as a sign of weak will, with many people who have used drugs seeing the people who have drug addictions as making bad decisions and harming themselves or their family members due to these bad decisions and their love for a drug over all else.

There are many statistics surrounding drug addiction. They include the following:

In 2015, an estimated 21,000 adolescents had used heroin in the past year, and an estimated 5,000 were current heroin users. Additionally, an estimated 6,000 adolescents had heroin a heroin use disorder in 2014.

Of the 20.5 million Americans 12 or older that had a substance use disorder in 2015, 2 million had a substance use disorder involving prescription pain relievers and 591,000 had a substance use disorder involving heroin.

And

Drug overdose is the leading cause of accidental death in the US, with 52,404 lethal drug overdoses in 2015. Opioid addiction is driving this epidemic, with 20,101 overdose deaths related to prescription pain relievers, and 12,990 overdose deaths related to heroin in 2015.

It is often difficult to “withdraw” from these drugs as they are very powerful and can cause lasting harmful effects. For instance, there are scientifically verifiable ways of looking at heroin and opiod withdrawal effects. There are two statistics worth showing about them.

For drugs like heroin, which have a shorter half-life, and are shorter-acting, withdrawal symptoms can begin 6-12 hours after the last dose. With longer acting drugs such as methadone, LAAM, or buprenorphine, symptoms may take anywhere from 1-2 days to present. These are difficult symptoms.

Withdrawal symptoms for short acting opioids usually peak within 1-3 days and taper off over the course of a week. Chronic symptoms such as anxiety, insomnia, and dysphoria may last for weeks or months following withdrawal. These are difficult symptoms to manage as people may try to get off them themselves and risk damage.

And of course: Goosebumps and fever are signs of a more severe withdrawal. The rates of relapse among people who go through detoxification alone is roughly 95%. These are difficult symptoms as well. It can be dangerous to detox alone from opiods or heroin. They possibly can cause lasting harm to the body.

Detoxing is a difficult issue facing many who struggle with addiction, whether it is alcohol addiction, marijuana addiction, cocaine addiction, drug addiction, and more. It is a difficult process to go through alone, though some try it. Others are recommended to take a more conservative approach and see a doctor.

While it is difficult, some people have no problems taking drugs and functioning on a day to day level. These people are able to do their jobs and hold onto their jobs, be with families and have healthy relationships with their families, and do all the right things, which those with alcohol or drug “dependence” struggle to do.

Then there are the service animals. Service animals are used for people who have serious physical illnesses, including blindness. Service animals are able to guide their person to the right location, to crossing the street, to sitting down at a restaurant and much more. Services animals are helpful for those who struggle with a major physical condition.

Service animals may also go by another name, called emotional support animals. These animals are big with helping people who struggle with a quote-unquote “mental health issue.” These issues, some would say, are relatively not significant, as some might call them, and this leads to thoughts about whether a “emotional support animal” is the other.

There are many terms for all of these issues, including hot to get emotional support animal letter, hot to find a family doctor, legal medical marijuana, pain management doctor, pain management specialist, primary care physician, and much more. There are important tools that can be used, such as medical weight control and more.

Detoxing may be good for a person’s health. As can a service animal.