14 DAY TRIAL // Support groups, such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous, have more than 5 million members throughout the United States, a recent Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) survey reveals. Some 50 percent of them reported giving up their bad habits after attending these meetings and remaining sober for periods longer than a month. SAMHSA says that there is no possible way of knowing how many Americans out there actually attend these groups, either regularly, or sporadically.
In fact, the US agency estimates that some 22 million citizens meet the criteria for one kind of substance abuse, including hallucinogenic substances, medication, alcohol and others. Identifying all these people is practically impossible, and there is no way of formulating a policy aimed at fighting this phenomenon, seeing how most of these people aren't even aware that they have a problem, and would not enter a rehabilitation center.
The current study was conducted on 135,672 US citizens, 12 years of age or older, during 2006 and 2007. Some 66 percent of those who admitted to attending an anonymous support group in the past year were men, and approximately 80 percent of all study respondents who took counseling were above 25 years of age.
Nearly half of those who took steps towards ridding themselves of their obsession with alcohol or drugs managed to remain sober for more than a month, whereas the others fell back into their old ways, even with all the support they received from their peers. These groups are very effective, SAMHSA reports, as people feel they are equal to each other when talking about themselves, unlike in a rehabilitation center, where the distance between the doctor and the patient is always felt.
Human rights groups also say that the standard for alcohol or drug consumption should not be set at such a low level, seeing how millions country-wide use sleeping pills or medication for one type or another of mental illness. Abusing these substances is fairly easy in bad days, when people want to get away from their daily stress, after a hard day's work. However, they also admit that a line must be drawn somewhere, so as not to jeopardize the rest of the population.