The 2004 Faces & Voices of Recovery Public Survey found that as many as 63 percent of Americans say that addiction to alcohol or other drugs has had an impact on them at some point in their lives, whether it was the addiction of a family member or friend or another experience, such as their own personal addiction.

According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, in 2003 an estimated 21.6 million Americans were classified with substance dependence or abuse. As dire as those statistics sound, studies such as the one published in the October 2000 Journal of the American Medical Association have found that treatments for substance use disorders are as effective as treatments for other chronic conditions, such as high blood pressure, asthma, and diabetes.

For 16 years now, the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), through its Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT), has designated September as "National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month" in order to recognize the collective effort that goes into achieving recovery. While Recovery Month raises community awareness of addiction, it also raises hope by giving recovery a familiar face and a strong voice.

As people take part in Recovery Month activities throughout the country, they learn that help is closer at hand than they may have realized. They discover that families just like theirs have wrestled with addiction problems just like they have and that they have survived intact--usually stronger and healthier because of their journey through recovery.

The 2005 Recovery Month theme is "Join the Voices for Recovery: Healing Lives, Families, and Communities." At the recoverymonth.gov Web site, individuals are invited to share their stories of addiction and recovery. Mike B. from Kentucky tells how he went from being a highly respected television news anchor and producer, a writer, and actor to an unemployed alcoholic living in a homeless shelter. "Today I am happy and life is good," he writes. "I am happily married. I have my own business, and my children are speaking to me. I have a beautiful granddaughter who has never seen me drunk.  .  .  . I want people to know there is help, hope and healing. I want to take the stigma out of this disease. . . ."

CSAT describes community and media events as the cornerstone of Recovery Month, because they promote the benefits of recovery and encourage community members to change attitudes and work together to eliminate the stigma surrounding substance use disorders. Five years ago at their first Recovery Month walk, the Connecticut Community for Addiction Recovery (CCAR) envisioned 50 people walking near the state capitol. Seven hundred showed up. In 2001, just five days after 9/11, CCAR's "Recovery Walks!" drew over 2,000 people, and last year 4,000 turned out to declare their support for recovery.

Last year the city of New Orleans hosted "Sober Jam," an all-day statewide free family event aimed to show individuals that treatment works and recovery is possible. About 15,000 came to Sober Jam to enjoy live music and local cuisine and to stroll through the health and information fair. Smaller scale events--like Richmond, Virginia's forums where people in recovery gather in local churches to share their stories with community members--are also popular.

CSAT makes organizing, promoting, and hosting a Recovery Month activity easy by providing an on-line "Recovery Month Kit" at its Web site. The kit contains ideas for events, sample press releases, facts about substance abuse, media tips, and other helpful information.

SAMHSA reported that addiction-treatment admissions in the United States declined in 2003 for the first time in six years--without any corresponding decline in consumption of alcohol. This year's Recovery Month emphasizes identifying addiction problems and referring people to treatment and support services, so it is timely that SAMHSA has updated its online Treatment Facility Locator. The locator is a searchable database of more than 11,000 U.S. addiction treatment programs that treat alcohol and drug abuse problems. To find the nearest facility to you, go to http://findtreatment.samhsa.gov/.

--Published August 22, 2005