While addiction is deadlier than ever, research shows most Americans heal

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While addiction¹ is deadlier than ever, research shows most Americans heal

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The U.S. is facing the deadliest drug overdose epidemic³ in its history, but there is hope. Research shows most people with addiction do survive and recover, especially when they get quality treatment.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Would you like some good news? Yeah, me too. We've been reporting on the epidemic of drug deaths in the U.S. More than 100,000 fatal overdoses last year alone. Here's the good part. This morning, we're going to turn to a surprising and hopeful part of the story. Research shows most people with substance use disorder⁴ survive and heal. Even after using hard drugs for long periods of time, many people recover to lead good, full lives. NPR's addiction correspondent Brian Mann reports.

BRIAN MANN, BYLINE⁵: This is a story with a happy ending. In fact, it has millions and millions of happy endings. But to get there, we have to start in a pretty bleak⁶ place.

ANNA MABLE-JONES: My sophomore⁷ year, I started experimenting with crack cocaine⁸. And that just took me for a total downward spiral.

MANN: That's Anna Mable-Jones. She's a Black woman who lives in Laurel, Md. She dropped out of college, wound up incarcerated⁹. The next decade was hell for her and her family, who often didn't know if she was alive or dead.

MABLE-JONES: The agony, the scared, like my mother calling the morgues or putting - she didn't just do it. She'd call my sister and say, hey, you need to call. I haven't heard from Anna.

MANN: Travis Rasco also lost a decade of his life to addiction. He's a white guy who lives in Plattsburgh in upstate New York.

TRAVIS RASCO: Heroin¹⁰ became my drug of choice pretty quick. Struggled with that for 10, 11 years, time I'll never get back.

MANN: Rasco hit bottom over and over, overdosing twice. Like Anna Mabel-Jones, he kept trying to stop and kept relapsing.

RASCO: Hopeless despair, that's a good way to describe it. Like, you know, I wanted to quit, I just couldn't, you know? I would get emotional before I would use, you know? Like, I don't want to do this, but I can't not do this.

MANN: This is what a lot of us see when we think of people with substance use disorder, overdoses and deaths, drug crime, people slumped¹¹ in doorways¹². We think of our own family members doing painful, ugly things because of their addiction. But a growing body of research, including a national study published by a team at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, shows this isn't a complete or accurate picture. In fact, roughly 75% of people with addiction - three out of every four - they get better.

JOHN KELLY: This is really good news, I think, and something to be - to share and be hopeful about.

MANN: Dr. John Kelly teaches addiction medicine at Harvard and heads the Recovery Research Institute at Massachusetts General. Their peer-reviewed study, published last year, found more than 20 million Americans are living now in recovery. They experienced some form of substance use disorder, everything from alcohol and cocaine to opioids and methamphetamines. And then they got well again.

KELLY: That's huge. We are literally¹³ surrounded by people who are in recovery from a substance use disorder, but we don't know it.

MANN: Anna Mabel-Jones is one of those people. If you met her now, you'd say her life and her home look pretty normal.

MABLE-JONES: This is our living room, right? Honestly, we're getting ready to do the whole thing, you know, the fireplace, and put the TV over here. So we're in the process of renovating¹⁴.

MANN: Mabel-Jones last used drugs more than 20 years ago. She's married now, has a career helping¹⁵ other people in recovery. She says life is awesome¹⁶.

MABLE-JONES: Things that I thought I would never gain again, through the process of recovery, I have them all, you know? Today I'm a homeowner, you know? I own a car, you know? I've started my own business. Those things, I never, ever thought I'd do.

MANN: This wasn't easy. After finally giving up drugs, she said, she also had to learn to feel emotions again. She rebuilt trust with her family and her mom.

MABLE-JONES: When she passed on, she saw that she had a daughter. She - I was there for her. I was there to go with her to her appointments, take her to the doctor.

MANN: Experts say recovery rates from addiction aren't the same for all people. Studies show racial bias¹⁷ makes it harder for Black and Hispanic Americans to find treatment. People who have more financial resources and support recover faster, as do people with milder forms of addiction. But Dr. David Eddie says, across all those groups, even for people using harder drugs, recovery is the norm.

DAVID EDDIE: That 75% number, that includes, obviously, people at the more severe end of the spectrum¹⁸, not just the people at the lower end of the severity spectrum. So there's absolutely hope.

MANN: Eddie also teaches at Harvard and treats patients with addiction at Massachusetts General. He says their study found people don't just survive once they stop drinking or using drugs, they often thrive. They tend to get happier year by year. They reconnect with family and enjoy measurable economic success.

EDDIE: They've been to hell and back. And, in fact, you know, they go above and beyond. And maybe they end up achieving things they wouldn't have achieved if they'd never been through the hell of addiction.

MANN: So if this kind of happy ending is the norm for people with addiction, why don't we see it that way? Why is there so much stigma¹⁹ and hopelessness? Kelly and Eddie say one factor is the challenging nature of this illness. It's hard to treat. It usually takes years for people to get better. Multiple relapses, often five or more, are a normal, if painful, part of the process. This is also a moment when addiction is more dangerous. Studies suggest people are drinking more during the pandemic. And many street drugs are contaminated with the deadly synthetic²⁰ opioid fentanyl, which is driving the big surge in overdose deaths. Eddie says one takeaway from their research is the need for harm-reduction programs that help people survive until they can heal.

EDDIE: Nobody recovered from addiction dead. My feeling is if we can keep people alive long enough, we know that, eventually, the majority get recovery.

MANN: Travis Rasco in upstate New York is a good example of someone who did survive long enough to turn his life around. After two near-fatal overdoses, he's been drug free nearly four years. He says life is good. He's married, reconnected with his family and has a career.

RASCO: That stuff all comes back. I mean, now it's back in tenfold.

MANN: The morning we met, Rasco was on his way to a good-paying job at a factory. But what he really wanted to talk about was his new baby.

RASCO: We just had a newborn daughter.

MANN: Congratulations. That's wonderful.

RASCO: Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, we're trying to buy a house right now. You know, it's something I never thought would be possible and something I didn't really think I deserved for the longest time.

MANN: Everyone we talked to for this story agreed, because of fentanyl, this is a uniquely dangerous time for people with addiction. But they also said it's important people with this disease know there's hope. Most people will recover, especially if they get the care and support and the time they need.

Brian Mann, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF SOULAR ORDER'S "MERIDIAN")

1 addiction   

n.上瘾入迷，嗜好

参考例句：

• He stole money from his parents to feed his addiction.他从父母那儿偷钱以满足自己的嗜好。
• Areas of drug dealing are hellholes of addiction,poverty and murder.贩卖毒品的地区往往是吸毒上瘾、贫困和发生谋杀的地方。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

4 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 bleak   

adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的

参考例句：

• They showed me into a bleak waiting room.他们引我来到一间阴冷的会客室。
• The company's prospects look pretty bleak.这家公司的前景异常暗淡。

7 sophomore   

n.大学二年级生；adj.第二年的

参考例句：

• He is in his sophomore year.他在读二年级。
• I'm a college sophomore majoring in English.我是一名英语专业的大二学生。

8 cocaine   

n.可卡因，古柯碱（用作局部麻醉剂）

参考例句：

• That young man is a cocaine addict.那个年轻人吸食可卡因成瘾。
• Don't have cocaine abusively.不可滥服古柯碱。

9 incarcerated   

钳闭的

参考例句：

• They were incarcerated for the duration of the war. 战争期间，他们被关在狱中。 来自辞典例句
• I don't want to worry them by being incarcerated. 我不想让他们知道我被拘禁的事情。 来自电影对白

10 heroin   

n.海洛因

参考例句：

• Customs have made their biggest ever seizure of heroin.海关查获了有史以来最大的一批海洛因。
• Heroin has been smuggled out by sea.海洛因已从海上偷运出境。

11 slumped   

大幅度下降，暴跌( slump的过去式和过去分词 )； 沉重或突然地落下[倒下]

参考例句：

• Sales have slumped this year. 今年销售量锐减。
• The driver was slumped exhausted over the wheel. 司机伏在方向盘上，疲惫得睡着了。

12 doorways   

n.门口，门道( doorway的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The houses belched people; the doorways spewed out children. 从各家茅屋里涌出一堆一堆的人群，从门口蹦出一群一群小孩。 来自辞典例句
• He rambled under the walls and doorways. 他就顺着墙根和门楼遛跶。 来自辞典例句

13 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

14 renovating   

翻新，修复，整修( renovate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The increased production was largely attained by renovating old orchards and vineyards. 通过更新老果园和葡萄园，使生产大大增加。
• Renovating that house will cost you a pretty penny. 为了整修那所房子，你得花很多钱。

15 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

16 awesome   

adj.令人惊叹的，难得吓人的，很好的

参考例句：

• The church in Ireland has always exercised an awesome power.爱尔兰的教堂一直掌握着令人敬畏的权力。
• That new white convertible is totally awesome.那辆新的白色折篷汽车简直棒极了.

17 bias   

n.偏见，偏心，偏袒；vt.使有偏见

参考例句：

• They are accusing the teacher of political bias in his marking.他们在指控那名教师打分数有政治偏见。
• He had a bias toward the plan.他对这项计划有偏见。

18 spectrum   

n.谱，光谱，频谱；范围，幅度，系列

参考例句：

• This is a kind of atomic spectrum.这是一种原子光谱。
• We have known much of the constitution of the solar spectrum.关于太阳光谱的构成，我们已了解不少。

19 stigma   

n.耻辱，污名；(花的)柱头

参考例句：

• Being an unmarried mother used to carry a social stigma.做未婚母亲在社会上曾是不光彩的事。
• The stigma of losing weighed heavily on the team.失败的耻辱让整个队伍压力沉重。

20 synthetic   

adj.合成的，人工的；综合的；n.人工制品

参考例句：

• We felt the salesman's synthetic friendliness.我们感觉到那位销售员的虚情假意。
• It's a synthetic diamond.这是人造钻石。