The dangers of alcohol addiction are well known, and in the U.S. nearly 90,000 people died from alcohol-related causes between 2006 to 2010. [1]
That doesn’t even include the sharp rise in alcohol-related liver diseases in recent years, as reported in the Washington Post and USA Today. [2] [3]
With statistics like these, alcoholism in the U.S. and the globe has ranged into the territory of a veritable epidemic.
The public health and psychological impacts of an addiction to humanity’s drug of choice are wide-reaching and personal. The decision each person makes to conquer their own battle with substance abuse of any kind is often difficult and uncertain.
Because of this, it is important that recovering alcoholics and other addicts have every tool available to them.
According to the Scottsdale Recovery Center in Arizona, more and more recovering alcoholics are turning to CBD to ease their transition back to healthy living.
The SRC says that while most National Institutes of Health studies on CBD and addiction have revolved around cigarettes and opioids, but the withdrawal symptoms and their treatment is similar whether a patient is addicted to those substances or others, like alcohol. [4]
The experts at the SRC have found that many users of CBD seek it out for pain relief, which is a symptom most common across different types of withdrawals. For this reason and others, recovering alcoholics have found successes with the hemp-based products.
According to the Scottsdale Recovery Center, CBD also inhibits “reward-facilitating effects” in the brain caused by harmful drugs and alcohol. This could be key to improving the lives of those among us who just can’t seem to break the physical cycle of addiction. [4]
Treating alcoholism and other chemical dependencies on the physical level is highly important to recovery, but it is by no means the only hurdle for those in the grips of addiction.
Perhaps just as important is the treatment of underlying psychological and character issues that tend to drive people into substance abuse issues. These have deep consequences in the social, economic and family lives of the people who suffer from them.
Since it has broken onto the scene and exploded in popularity in recent years, countless people have used CBD oils, edibles and other products for their depression and anxiety symptoms. Not only do they use CBD for these ailments, but unlike its cousin marijuana, hemp-based CBD doesn’t create a mind-altering “high.”
The most popular drug in America has created one of the most common addictions that brings with it myriad diseases, chronic and acute. This should not surprise everyday people. Almost anyone could point to someone in their life touched by this epidemic.
For exactly those reasons, we should be open to any tool in a recovering drinker’s arsenal. What we know now from National Institutes of Health research and experts in the field of addiction therapy, CBD is an important tool that could change many lives in the future.
Sources:
[1] https://nccd.cdc.gov/DPH_ARDI/Default/Report.aspx?T=AAM&P=f6d7eda7-036e-4553-9968-9b17ffad620e&R=d7a9b303-48e9-4440-bf47-070a4827e1fd&M=8E1C5233-5640-4EE8-9247-1ECA7DA325B9&F=&D=
[2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2018/07/18/alcohol-related-liver-deaths-have-increased-sharply/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.219f8c3b545e
[3] https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/08/24/alcohol-death-disease-study-beer-wine/1082443002/
[4] https://scottsdalerecovery.com/cbd-for-addiction/