Jamie Lee Curtis – Growing up in a home with two famous parents who suffered from substance abuse issues didn’t do anything to deter Jamie Lee Curtis from spiraling into her own black hole. After years of heavy drinking and Vicodin use, Curtis finally entered a rehab center after feeling like a “failure” as both a mother and human being. Sober for 13 years, she calls getting sober “the single bravest thing I have ever done and will ever do in my life.” Today, she is an advocate for sobriety and served as the keynote speaker at a recent event for The Council on Drugs and Alcohol.

Matthew Perry – Although Matthew Perry was one of the biggest stars of the 90’s, fans of the hit comedy Friends couldn’t help but take notice of his weight fluctuations – something later pinned to his secret battle with addiction. Perry admits to serious struggles with opiates and alcohol, and he entered rehab twice as a result. These days, he’s known less for a comedy shtick and more for his serious advocacy against addiction. In addition to speaking at events and schools nationwide, he recently joined the National Association of Drug Court Professionals to lobby for greater government support for drug courts and addiction programs.

Mario – R&B star Mario (full name: Mario Barrett) knows first-hand how addiction can impact a child. Growing up in Baltimore, he lived in a family riddled with substance abuse problems, including a drug-addicted mother, and lost several friends and family members to addiction. His experiences inspired him to establish “Live Right Do Right,” a 16-week after-school program geared toward educating kids on the dangers of drugs and encouraging them to talk about their own experiences with addiction. Unlike some celebrity-founded charities, Mario is incredibly involved in his organization and frequently attends meetings, either in-person or via Skype.

Jennifer Gimenez – Before she was a reality television staple, Jennifer Gimenez was an actress and model with severe substance abuse problems. Fame came with a high price for Gimenez and led her down a path of alcohol and cocaine addictions, and she finally got sober – after several relapses – in early 2006. Her early involvement with Dr. Drew resulted in her serving as “house mom” on VH1’s popular show Sober House. Gimenez decided to become an outspoken advocate for sobriety as she believes the work is important and rewarding, and claims to receive 8,000 to 10,000 Facebook messages a day from fans in need – she says she answers every one of them.

Cory Monteith – Although he might have recently suffered a relapse and entered a rehab facility, Glee superstar Cory Monteith has been very vocal about his own struggles with addiction and how they negatively impacted his life. Monteith has admitted that he got hooked on drugs and alcohol at a young age and attended 12 different schools by the time he was 16, eventually dropping out altogether. He hit rock bottom after stealing money from family members and being forced by his mother to attend rehab. Stating he’s “lucky to be alive,” Monteith made the decision to share his story in the hopes of deterring other kids from getting wrapped up in drugs and alcohol, and quitting school.

Experts believe that there are a few reasons for this. For people on the younger end of the spectrum – specifically, Baby Boomers who came of age in the 60’s and 70’s – experimentation with drugs was a rite of passage in their younger years. For this reason, many of them don’t see recreational drug use as a huge deal. The result is that many of them spiral into addiction, most commonly with alcohol, marijuana, cocaine and opiates.

Unlike these Boomers, the elderly rarely use drugs to get high and often end up addicted by accident. For many older Americans, deteriorating mental health is often to blame for addiction, with many of them suffering from depression, memory loss and other kinds of mental illnesses. Some have explained that the loss of a spouse led to loneliness, depression and boredom, which, in turn, led to excessive drinking to self-medicate. In fact, the statistics on the number of elderly Americans who engage in binge drinking are staggering – a 2011 National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that 8.3 percent of adults ages 65 and over reported binge drinking. For anyone, this kind of behavior is a slippery slope, but for a senior suffering from mental illness, this is incredibly dangerous and can only worsen things like mood and memory loss. Additionally, as people get older and their metabolism slows, the body doesn’t process and absorb alcohol as well, so the elderly are actually advised to consume less than younger Americans.

Alcohol isn’t the only drug plaguing older Americans. Prescription drugs are a growing problem for this demographic, in much the same way they are for other age brackets nationwide. Some experts believe that as many as 10 percent of seniors misuse prescription medications, such as anti-anxiety benzodiazepines, sleeping pills and opiate painkillers. For women, the risk is even higher, with 44 percent of females abusing prescription meds, versus 23 percent of men.

With these numbers rising, it’s important that family members and physicians alike be aware of the signs and symptoms of substance abuse, and not be afraid to approach someone who appears to be in danger of addiction. This can be a touchy subject and not something people typically associate with seniors, but as it continues to grow as a problem nationwide, we must take our blinders off and ensure that we get people the help they desperately need from a substance abuse treatment program.

Of course, as is the case with any chemical dependence or addiction, quitting cigarettes isn’t simple. Nicotine is widely recognized as one of the most addictive drugs in the world, with an estimated 50,000,000 nicotine addicts in the U.S. alone – but most of them don’t really want to be enslaved to tobacco. A recent survey by the CDC found that 69% of smokers want to quit completely and another 52% have tried in the past year. Unfortunately, most are not successful and a new study by Duke University’s Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development might have one answer why it’s near impossible for some people to quit. A research team out of the university examined variations in genes that affect the brain’s ability to process nicotine and found several differences that enabled them to develop “risk scores” to predict which people would become heavy smokers. According to the team, individuals with high genetic risk for smoking addiction were actually not more likely to start smoking or become heavy smokers if they began using cigarettes in adulthood. However, people with high genetic risk who began smoking as teenagers were, in fact, more likely to develop a nicotine dependence and become heavy smokers. Although the research team isn’t exactly why this occurs, they speculate that it because teenagers’ brains are not fully developed, smoking addiction genes may have a more adverse effect on the brain.

So, what does this mean, exactly? For starters, it helps explain why some people can quit and others can’t. A social smoker who begins using cigarettes at 25 and builds up a habit will likely have an easier time quitting at the age of 40 than the person who started when he or she was 15. It makes the picture a little clearer and helps us understand why some of our friends who are lifelong smokers can’t kick the habit, no matter how hard they seem to try, and it seems to be a breeze for others. Most importantly, it highlights the importance of educating children and teens on the dangers of smoking addiction and how difficult the habit is to quit. We must get to people while they’re young – before they ever light up – to ensure that cigarettes don’t continue to take a dangerous toll on our society.

• Work – Of the people surveyed for the study, half had been fired while in the throes of addiction. While this seems dire, employment increased by 50% once people entered recovery programs and twice as many people started their own businesses.

• Finances – Anyone who’s gone through addiction can understand that irresponsibility runs rampant and finances can get incredibly messy. Take heart in knowing that financial problems were reduced by half after recovery. Even more interesting to note is that they are actually more responsible than the general population, in some respects – while only 54% of the population paid income taxes, 80% of sober people did.

• Health – It’s not rocket science that excessive amounts of drugs and alcohol can take a serious toll on your body. However, once people enter recovery, not only do they eliminate toxins, but they eat healthier and work out more. The study found that ER visits decreased by a factor of 10 and while two-thirds of addicts suffer from untreated mental illness, those numbers dropped by a factor of more than four once they began recovery.

• Family life – Anyone who has recovered from addiction can attest to the new amount of energy for and interest in various activities once a person is sober. This extends into family life, as the study found that participation in family-centric activities increased by 50%. Furthermore, domestic violence incidents decreased from more than 40% to 10%.

• Legal problems – According to the study, arrests fell tenfold and jail time sevenfold. Unsurprisingly, DWI arrests dropped drastically and only 5% of people in recovery were arrested.

• Civic involvement – Both voting and volunteering increased significantly once people entered recovery, with participation in volunteering jumping threefold, to 84%. What’s more, only 26.8% of the general American public volunteer, so it would appear that people in recovery are actually more committed to service.

“We’ve relied too long on the criminal justice system,” said Gil Kerlikowske, the head of President Obama’s drug policy. According to his statements, he is opting for a plan that diverts non-violent drug offenders into drug courts and treatment rather than putting them behind bars.

In recent months there has been a greater push by states to increase their drug courts and early resolution courts. The statements by Kerlikowske, a former Seattle Police Chief, indicate that such programs have been beneficial to both those charged with drug crimes and municipalities and could become the law of the land across the United States.

Aside from the drug courts, other suggestions included a focus on early education programs in schools and communities. There is also a push for early intervention by health care professionals and there are other changes that will come as a result of the Affordable Care Act. One of the major changes to our health care system that we can expect to see under the act will make insurance providers cover substance abuse treatment. In the past, this was something that was not as frequently covered by the majority of health care policies. “Treatment shouldn’t be a privilege limited to those who can afford it, but it’s a service available to all who need it,” Kerlikowske said.

This shift in policy seems to have come from a shift in understanding by government officials. Budget crises around the country have also put a strain on the criminal justice and prison system, which has been the main receptacle for drug users for the better part of the last 50 years. In retrospect, the so-called Drug Czar said: “I couldn’t figure out why [substance abusers] didn’t change… I really didn’t have the understanding that science brings.”

“I think the important part is that a lot of criminal justice experts and police chiefs and sheriffs – my colleagues for many years and myself included – recognize that with a drug problem you can’t arrest your way out of the problem, and so we really need to be smart on the drug problem.”

For years, advocates from various groups, agencies, professional and civilian communities have advocated for treatment as an obvious solution to incarcerating non-violent drug abusers. The reason main reason being that a person with a criminal record for drugs has a high rate of recidivism in the prison system. Without treatment, the charged may never have the chance to deal with the issues that got them using or addicted to harmful illegal substances in the first place. Professionals and concerned parties have worked to put out the notion that people with substance abuse or addiction are not across-the-board criminals; they are victims of an illness and a disease. While there is no “cure” for addiction, addicts can follow a path to recovery with the help of healthcare professionals and treatment. Now, that these voices have worked tirelessly to fight off the stigma against drug users it seems that these voices have reached a critical mass. Their efforts have created a space for powers that be, from local governments all the way to the White House, to take action to treat drug abuse rather than simply demonize and criminalize it.

The Obama Administration has placed a bid for nearly $11 billion dollars to fight drug abuse through education and treatment, rather than the usual handcuffs and prison bars. Hopefully, soon, people with substance abuse problems will be able to seek treatment from caring and compassionate professionals. All we can say is that if that person in need chooses Lakeside Treatment Center, we’re here for them.

Kerlikowske, a former Seattle police chief, said.

Although technology certainly has myriad benefits, it’s crippling our interpersonal skills, particularly among generations that have never known a world without cell phones and Facebook. By relying on these types of mediums, people lose their ability to read facial cues, distort social interactions and come to believe that communicating through just a few words or sentences is acceptable. Additionally, the need to be constantly tied to the Internet and devices sucks time that should be spent on productive activities, exercise or face-to-face social interaction. And one of the biggest problems is that because technology is critical to our daily lives, most people don’t understand that it can be destructive in many of the same ways as drugs and alcohol, leading to isolation, health issues and problems in one’s personal and work lives.

Although the American Psychiatric Association did add “Internet Addiction Disorder” to its recent edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, research on technology addiction is fairly new – but many of the facts and statistics that experts have uncovered are alarming. Below are a few that highlight the severity of this dependence within our society.

• In a 2010 study, 61 percent of Americans reported that they believe that they are addicted to the Internet.

• A 2012 study by Pew Research revealed that 44 percent of Americans sleep with their cell phones next to their beds and 67 percent check it even if it’s not ringing or vibrating.

• One research study found that technology addiction in toddlers impedes their development. According to expert Cari Guittard, it stifles interpersonal skills and creates an “ice wall” in toddlers that, in turn, causes the brain to lose elasticity and creates static in the frontal lobe.

• A recent study out of Israel found that people can become so addicted to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter that they experience delusions, anxiety and confusion.

• Approximately 1,000 workers in the UK polled for a survey said that losing Internet tops their list of biggest stressors, with 38 percent reporting that they’d rather lose use of their utilities. Similar studies found that technology-related stress correlates with increased feelings of life dissatisfaction.

• Studies have revealed that people who spend a considerable amount of time on Facebook are prone experiencing distress, anxiety and inadequacy. One study found that photos posted of people on vacation cause envy and that jealousy among women in their 30s and 40s is significant for posts related to familial happiness and physical attractiveness.

Many people do not seek treatment due to the heavy costs, so this landmark bill will help lead several addicts on the path to recovery through the psychological and addiction treatment that they so desperately need. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, 5.1 million Americans who have some type of insurance policy – either individual or small group – do not have access to care in the event of a substance abuse or mental health problem. Moreover, Medicaid – which does not provide coverage and treatment for drug addiction issues – will offer such coverage for the 27 million other Americans who don’t have access to this type of coverage.

Michael Botticelli, deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy calls the new requirements the “most profound change we’ve had in drug policy ever.” And this new coverage isn’t simply an act of goodwill. A spokesperson from the Access Community Health Network pointed out that by extending recovery treatment services to those who need them, we’ll be able to cut down on emergency room and hospital visits by people suffering from mental health and substance abuse issues.

Clearly, these new regulation will inspire a collective sigh of relief among people who suffer from mental health and substance abuse issues, but do not have access to necessary services due to financial constraints. Anyone who has been through rehab or counseling knows that, even for someone with insurance coverage, it’s a huge financial strain. And for many who seek help, they must discontinue treatment after a period of time due to insurance policy mandates, exhaustion of their own budgets or both. Thanks to these new laws, that won’t be a concern – and hopefully we can work toward a healthier America.

But not all drinkers reach for onion rings when they imbibe. In fact, some take the opposite approach entirely, engaging in a scary practice that experts are calling “drunkorexia,” in which people engage in disordered eating or starvation during the day in order to binge drink at night. This pattern of destructive, disordered eating is particularly prevalent in college students – a 2011 study revealed that 16 percent of students (mostly female) admitted to starving themselves during the day, either to get drunk faster or keep their weight down in anticipation of calories consumed during binge drinking.

Mental health experts note that a dual diagnosis of substance abuse and eating disorders is extremely common a whopping 50 percent of people with eating disorders also engage in substance abuse, compared to only nine percent of the general population. Unsurprisingly – given the lax attitude people take toward eating while binge drinking and the general lack of inhibitions – 30 to 50 percent of these people suffer from bulimia and only 12-18 percent are anorexic. Furthermore, 35 percent of people who identify as substance abusers and addicts also have an eating disorder, whereas only three percent of the general population do.

Whether one suffers from an eating disorder or gorges him or herself on calorie-laden food while drinking, the consequences are severe. For a person robbing him or herself of food during the day and drinking on an empty stomach, there is a greater likelihood of alcohol poisoning and passing out, which can cause injuries. In the long-term, substituting alcohol for food cause lead to malnutrition, reproductive issues for women and organ damage. For those who make poor choices, issues like obesity, heart disease and diabetes enter the fold.

Regardless, it’s important to remain cognizant of one’s food choices when alcohol is involved. Maintain a healthy diet, be responsible, and get help even if you are questioning if you really need to. It could save your life.

Marijuana isn’t the only drug, however, that is glorified due to the highs that users feel while under the influence. Below is a list of some of the negative side effects of some of the most popular illegal drugs today. Some side effects are so gruesome that we guarantee you’ll think twice before using.

• Cocaine – Over the past few years, cocaine has risen in popularity due to the feelings of euphoria, enhanced sexual desire and energy that it delivers to its users. However, the drug can ravage one’s body, causing paranoia, anxiety and irritability — and that’s if you’re lucky. The drug can bring on heart attacks in young people, cause seizures and ulcers, and aches, pains, tremors and chills.

• Heroin – This drug is famous for giving users a feeling of well-being, but it’s highly addictive, which means the odds are stacked against addicts when it comes to being insulated from some of the dirtier aspects of the drug. Heroin causes cottonmouth, dizziness, nausea and itchiness, and a decrease in respiratory and cardiac functions. This is all not to mention that withdrawal is an incredibly painful experience that includes vomiting, diarrhea, and hot and cold flashes.

• Crystal Meth – There’s a reason why people talk about “meth face.” Crystal meth dries out the skin and users often develop lesions on their body that are exacerbated by the “picking” addicts engage in due to uncontrollable feelings of itchiness. What’s more, teeth begin to rot and tooth grinding can lead one’s jaw to collapse. And none of this even begins to touch the “lesser” symptoms, like excessive sweating and mood swings.

• Ecstasy – Because ecstasy greatly affects serotonin levels in the brain, users often experience severe periods of depression after coming down from the drug and can be so severe, that it causes suicide in long-term users. The drug also causes addicts to grind their teeth – leading to jaw soreness – diarrhea and constipation, achiness in muscles and joints, dizziness, insomnia, and anxiety.

• PCP/Angel Dust – Off-and-on since the 1960’s, PCP has risen in popularity and died out once people experienced some of the terrible side effects of the drug. PCP is highly unpredictable and can have a severe effect on the nervous system that can cause disorientation, anxiety and disorganized thinking. And that’s not all – the drug also can cause users to behave violently and bizarrely, in many cases during states of psychosis.

This week, two big studies released provided yet more proof that a cure for substance abuse is possible and, hopefully, just around the corner. One of them, a treatment for meth addiction, shows such promise that the FDA has actually fast-tracked studies on humans in the hopes of confirming a cure sooner, rather than later. By administering the drug Ibudilast to 11 non-treatment-seeking meth addicts, a research team out of UCLA found that Ibudilast reduced meth cravings while improving cognitive function. Experts believe that this works because Ibudilast blocks the activation of cells in the nervous system linked to drug dependence. The result is less desire for the drug and better decision-making abilities that would allow addicts to stop themselves from reaching for it. This summer, the UCLA research team will enter the second phase of a three-phase study. The results of the second phase will be released in 2015 and final FDA approval could come as soon as 2018. And meth might not be the only drug that ibudilast can combat – it’s possible that this treatment can also work for addiction to heroin and other opiates.

The other big study in the media this week revolves around laser treatment for cocaine addiction. According to the researchers involved, shining lasers in targeted regions of the brain to stimulate areas dedicated to decision-making and impulse control allowed doctors to “zap” cocaine-seeking behaviors in addicts. Experts involved in the study noted prefrontal cortex activity is extremely low in humans and rats addicted to cocaine – but by turning on a laser light in this area, compulsive cocaine seeking disappeared. The researchers hope that administering this treatment to cocaine addicts a few times each week can control addictive behavior and create less desire for the drug.

Although the results of studies like these are extremely promising, the sad truth is that today, there’s no “easy” way to cure an addiction. The only way to overcome the problem is through hard work, treatment programs, willpower and asking for help and support from loved ones. Waiting for a cure to come and help you through addictive issues is simply not an option at this point and can be disastrous. It’s up to you to take matters into your own hands and regain control over your life.