If you think rehab is expensive, think about the real costs of delaying or refusing addiction treatment.
Here we tackle the real high costs of delaying addiction treatment and how it can take a toll on you and your addicted loved one.
“Rehab is expensive.”
“It takes a lot of time away from work and family.”
“We can’t afford rehab.”
“There are other ways to deal with my addiction.”
“Rehab? I don’t need rehab!”
Perhaps you are familiar with these excuses. You may have heard this from your loved one or have made them yourself. After all, there really are many myths and misinformation surrounding addiction treatment and rehabilitation. These are all easy to believe in, and much more convenient, for those who are avoiding treatment, unwilling to let go of their addictions, or are simply in denial. However, by constantly putting of treatment whether for drug, alcohol or behavioral addiction, you eventually end up paying the ultimate price: your own life.
What are the real costs of delaying treatment?
1. Delaying or avoiding treatment destroys relationship. When addiction enters a relationship, it makes its presence known in profound ways. From arguments to physical violence, it leaves no one unscathed. It affects everyone, from your parents to your spouse, to your friends, and down to even your youngest kids.
Addiction triggers dishonesty, secrecy, isolation, and alienation. It causes you to ignore your responsibilities as well as the feelings of your loved ones. The result is a recipe for disappointment, anger, and resentment.
Some relationships can heal through time, but for healing to really start, you have to take the first step into recovery by getting treatment. Once you start getting rid of your addiction, everything else will follow.
2. Delaying treatment takes a toll on your body. Taking drugs and alcohol clearly has immediate physical effects, from terrible hangovers to impaired motor skills. But that doesn’t end there. Drug and alcohol abuse also have long-term, serious, and even life-threatening physical consequences.
Alcohol addiction can take a toll on your liver and pancreas, as well as trigger memory loss, paralysis of the eyes, and even permanent brain damage. It also increases your risk for cancers of the breast, stomach, esophagus, and pancreas.
Meanwhile, drug addiction causes a horde of negative physical effects, from elevated blood pressure, seizures, brain damage, and death.
3. Delaying treatment destroys your credibility and reputation. As you stay longer abusing drugs or alcohol, or even struggling with your behavioral addiction, sooner or later you will drown in all of it. You will lose your job or get low grades in school (even possibly kicked out), accrue a lot of debts, even steal or pawn yours and other people’s belongings, and you may even be involved in criminal behavior.
The more time you spend without treatment, you are also creating more opportunities to lose your credibility, as addiction is almost always associated with lying, secrecy, and deception.
4. Delaying treatment takes a toll on other people. Addiction causes you to lose control. This loss of control, unfortunately, does not only damage you, but others as well.
Being under the influence of drugs or alcohol, you may get involved in accidents, such as driving under the influence. You may also get involved in crimes or other issues that hurt or endanger your family, friends, and basically other people.
This time, ask yourself, “Is your addiction so much more important that you’re willing to risk the safety and lives of other people, especially your family?
5. Delaying treatment can be expensive in the long-run. Think about it: How much do you spend on your addictions right now? How much money is being lost because of lost time at work or losing your source of income because of poor performance? How much money is being lost because you have thrown away your future in favor of your addiction?
Aside from all these, there are also the costs if ever you get involved in criminal acts or legal scuffles. And if you get sick or get involved in accidents, there are the hospital costs to think about. Longer-term drug and alcohol addicts may also find themselves terminally ill, which can then cause you and your family a lot of money in hospitalization.
Don’t delay treatment any longer
While it may not be easy for you take that first step to get addiction treatment, it’s always the most sensible and practical option. The cost of putting off or ignoring the need for treatment is just too high, even to the point of losing your family and your life.
Addiction can destroy many things that make your life worthwhile and worth living–and nothing else is more important than your life, and that of other people, especially of your loved ones.
[…] However, if you look at it, there are more costs to stopping treatment than continuing it. (Read our article about it.) […]