Here in the United States, drug addiction – particularly opioid addiction – has become more of a problem than ever before. As a matter of fact, as of the year of 2015, more than 20,000 adolescents alone were using heroin at least once over the course of the year. Of this number, at least 5,000 of them were using heroin on a regular basis. And this only deals with a relatively small population of people, certainly smaller than the greater population of all ages in this country.

In fact, that same year of 2015 saw that not just 5,000 people were habitual users but more than 20 million of them. Of these 20 million people with substance abuse issues, more than two million were addicted to various prescription types of painkillers and nearly 600,000 (well over half of a million) of them were addicted to heroin specifically. There is certainly no doubting the fact that opioid addiction (and addiction as a whole, as a matter of fact) has become an ever more serious problem here in the United States.

And drug use can have some very real consequences. Not only does it have a number of health consequences, but it can even lead to death in the case of drug overdoses. In fact, drug overdose has become so deadly and so commonplace that it has even become the number one leading cause of death all throughout the country. In just the course of 2015 alone, more than 52,000 people unfortunately lost their lives due to drug overdose. In the few years that have followed since, this number has only continued to grow and grow.

Of course, opioids have made up a huge percentage of these drug overdose deaths, with more than 20,000 of them related to prescription painkillers and very nearly 13,000 of them in direct relation to heroin use. But in addition to the danger of opioids, alcoholism is still one of the most deadly addictions around. As a matter of fact, alcoholism is still number three out of all deadly diseases here in the United States, as even withdrawing from alcohol can prove dangerous and even deadly (though this will only happen in the most severe and poorly managed of cases, which is certainly something to keep in mind).

But as important as detox processes are to get clean and back on the right path, detox processes can be hugely difficult to undergo, and this is why many detox processes are not followed through. In fact, with goosebumps only just one symptom of many detox processes, the majority of people detoxing from drugs or alcohol – more than 90% of them, as a matter of fact – won’t even make it all the way through the detox process. Other withdrawal symptoms can include anxiety, insomnia, and dysphoria, long term withdrawal effects of even short acting opioids whose most intensive symptoms taper off after a couple of weeks. These symptoms, however, can oftentimes last for months at a time.

Fortunately, detox processes can be successful when under the guidance of a detox doctor. As opposed to a home detox without any supervision, one of the detox processes that is the least likely to be successful, the detox process under the guidance of detox doctors is likely to be much more successful. Detox processes are necessary too, as the initial detoxing process must be completed before rehab can be particularly successful, if even an option in the first place.

And there are more rehab centers out there than ever before. In fact, more than ever, rehab centers are become specific for one type of drug addiction, such as that of the alcohol detox center. Getting such intense and specific treatment can seem overwhelming at first, but the focus on recovering and moving forward while still dealing with the past can be what many an addict is very much in need of, especially here and all throughout the United States.