New York is home to the Big Apple as well as some of the most important financial and business centers in the United States. It is also considered to be a global center of art. However, many of its residents struggle with high rates of drug and alcohol abuse and addiction. Every year, the state also loses many lives to an opioid related incident.
The Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services in the state of New York reports that about 12 percent of its residents above the age of 12 years struggle with substance abuse and addiction every year.
For the hundreds of thousands - and sometimes millions - of people who are affected by these disorders, the problem can only be managed in an accredited and licensed addiction treatment and rehabilitation facility.
In particular, the state has witnessed a growth in the rates of opioid abuse - including both legal prescription pain relief medications like morphine and hydrocodone as well as illicit opioids like fentanyl and its analogs as well as heroin.
People in New York abuse alcohol in different ways. These people come from every walk of life and cultural background. Unfortunately, a great majority among them do not even realize that their alcohol consumption is becoming problematic.
Cultural attitudes towards the drinking of alcohol in social situations, on the other hand, tend to be harmful. This is in the sense that they normalize alcohol abuse and alcoholism as well as the dangerous behaviors that often accompany this problem. For instance, 1 out of every 15 adolescents in the state admitted that they drove a car while intoxicated on alcohol.
Additionally, 24 percent of the people who were admitted into an addiction treatment and rehabilitation center in the state were enrolled due to alcohol abuse and addiction. In the same way, more than 1.1 million people above the age of 12 years in the state were struggling with alcohol abuse, use, and dependence from 2009 through to 2013.
During the same period, close to 1 million adults aged 20 years and older reported that they had engaged in heavy drinking or binge drinking - at various rates - in the month prior to the survey. By 2014, alcohol was responsible for more than 7,800 motor car accidents in the state.
New York is like the rest of the United States in the sense that the substance abuse epidemic is mostly being driven by high rates of prescription drug misuse and overuse. Healthcare professionals and doctors often write prescriptions for these medications - which is why some people assume that they are safe. However, this is not usually the case.
In 2015, for instance, 38 percent of all admissions into an addiction treatment and rehabilitation facility in the state were linked to the abuse and misuse of prescription medications.
Irrespective of the substances of abuse that you have been taking, the best solution would be to enroll in an addiction rehabilitation and treatment center in New York so that you can get help in overcoming your growing addiction or substance use disorder.