Gulf Breeze Recovery underscores importance of high-quality programs for treating opioid addiction

As opioid addiction hits record highs, Gulf Breeze Recovery, a Florida-based addiction recovery center, stresses the importance of high-quality, successful programs for treating addiction. The Centers for Disease Control released their latest report on Friday, which shows that the numbers of deaths related to opioid use hit record highs in 2015. The statistics show that the drug overdose epidemic has continued to worsen, with deaths tripling in the years between 1999 and 2014. Over 47,000 people in the U.S. died of a drug overdose in 2014, and over 60% of those deaths involved a prescribed or illicit opioid.

What is often seen as an innocuous prescription to combat pain is increasingly linked with prescription abuse, doctor shopping for a prescriber, the increase of "pill mills" where popular prescription drugs are often dispensed more freely, increased abuse of other prescription drugs, and a link to illicit drugs such as heroin as tolerance levels increase.

NPR's radio show Science Friday host Ira Flatow touched on the importance of addressing this opioid abuse epidemic in "What's Fueling the Current Opioid Epidemic?" which is affecting both the younger generation, who often turns to the black market for prescription drugs and finds that heroin is cheaper than the pills they seek, and the older generation between 40-80, who typically find getting prescription opioids from their physicians fairly easy. Additionally, it is noted that there have been a substantial rise in HIV-positive cases reported in counties across the nation, in some cases from less than ten in a year to over 200 in a year—directly linked to intravenous drug use.

As the epidemic continues, it is more imperative than ever that the public has access to high quality, successful programs that can offer a real solution to this problem. There are many people across the U.S. who have made multiple attempts at the traditional 12-step program, have been unsuccessful in their recovery and seek out nontraditional, alternatives to the 12-steps. Gulf Breeze Recovery is an inpatient drug and alcohol recovery center located near Pensacola Beach, Florida that offers a true holistic 12 step alternative program and is committed to helping turn the tide of the opioid epidemic.