In America 23.5 million people are suffering from alcohol and drug addiction. That is almost equivalent to the population of Texas and the numbers are growing each day. The more baffling part is that only 11 percent of those people, according to Drug Free .org’s article on new data, seek and receive treatment for their illness. Addiction can spark from various sources but can also be linked to the transcendental idea of individual expression.

Teen addiction is also a significant issue in society today. High School is one of the largest hubs for drug use to start or a place where people are persuaded to try something they are not comfortably with. The usual reasons range from peer pressure to depression to just plain defiance but the idea of individual expression is also another huge factor. Many teens want to become their own person and want to see the world from their own experiences and can often fall into the trap of substance abuse. And once addiction becomes a concern many other problems can follow. Addiction results in depression, lack of motivation, weight loss, and countless other problems. To prevent things like this from happening we can take necessary steps that can help reform the epidemic.

Some things that we can do are to offer more help within the school systems and make the consequences of drug use more apparent for people to truly understand. Another thing is to get involved with groups and organization that can work towards keeping this problem from growing and hopefully end it completely. There are many organizations in place already such as Alcoholics Anonymous who deal with alcohol abuse, Addiction Help which deals with all addiction issues and, World Health Organization which deals with addiction on a universal level.

Addiction is a big problem that will go away quickly but is something we as a bastion need to work on. The statistics associated with this disease serves as an eye opener and clearly shows addiction is a great problem we face. There are many ways to help fix the problem but the change has to begin within you.