Although millions of Americans suffer from substance use disorder from coast to coast, only about 10% of those people receive proper addiction treatment. The causes behind this statistic are complex and often overlap. Still, the challenges these people face need to be addressed in order to lower the rates of preventable overdose deaths in the country.
Many people who grapple with addiction have a hard time coming to terms that their drug misuse is a serious problem. Denial is a very fundamental part of the process of understanding people with substance use disorder because it shines a light on their difficulty understanding just how much their drug use impacts every other aspect of their lives. It also becomes a major hurdle to get over in regards to seeking treatment. Someone can’t seek out help until they admit they have a problem.