Over 23 million Americans are addicted.  Less than 10% seek treatment.  Addiction has been declared as a “brain disease” such bodies as the National Institute of Health, American Medical Association, etc., and is defined as the “compulsive need for and use of a habit-forming substance (as heroin, nicotine, or alcohol) characterized by tolerance and by well-defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal; broadly : persistent compulsive use of a substance known by the user to be harmful.”

Every day, substance abusers endure the ‘brain disease’ of addiction.  Their choice of using or not using has been taken away and replaced by an uncontrollable desire to self-destruct.  Their daily fight is to not only to overcome the addiction, but to function and make their way through the day.

Addiction is considered an epidemic, and a direct influence on family/domestic violence, crime, vehicle accidents, liver issues, falls, cancer, and stroke.  Addiction also increases birth defects (including mental retardation and other irreversible physical abnormalities) in children whose parents/mothers were addicted.  Damage from alcohol, addiction, and abuse knows no boundaries:  affecting all ages, both genders, and from all walks of life.  In addition, alcoholism can carry from generation to generation - research indicates that children of alcoholic parents are at greater risk than other children of becoming alcoholics.

What can we do?  WE ARE THE SURVIVORS, WE CARRY THE MESSAGE:

…We have been chosen to carry the message of recovery to the still suffering alcoholic. This is our duty as we recover from the disease of alcoholism... We were once powerless over alcohol, but once recovered we become very, very powerful people...

…As we go through the transformation from the sickness to the solution, we begin to fully understand that we change drastically from hopeless to capable... We gain hope from hopeless, power from powerless, and we gain strength....

…We alcoholics have chosen to believe the book of alcoholics anonymous, that this is our basic text and therefor we should not deviate from the book... The book tells us we can solve the drink problem, we find a solution to permanent recovery...

… Be confident you are doing what’s right in Gods eyes... If He is for us, who can be against us…

Know who you are.  Know what you have.  Know what you can share.  Know what you can give.  Most of all, remember where you were, where you are now, and that there is a solution.

Blessings,

Robb Kelly