For Baby Boomers, aging doesn’t just mean early bird dinners and retirement funds. It can also mean drug abuse. In a recent survey released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), admissions for substance abuse programs increased in the years between 2002 and 2007 for Baby Boomers, and presently show no sign of stopping. Boomers – who are typically aged between 48 and 66 (as of 2012), showed an increase in admissions for prescription drug and illegal drug abuse.

Challenges Addiction Treatment Center acknowledges that as people age, they are less able to process drugs through and out of their systems. This means that the same dose of drugs in your 20s can have a much more long-term and potentially dangerous effect on your system when you’re in your 50s.

To make matters worse, Baby Boomers are also taking more prescription medications that do things like lower cholesterol and regulate blood pressure. If they happen to be abusing prescription painkillers or illegal drugs at the same time, the combinations can be wreaking havoc on their systems. Even irregular drug abuse, like a twice-monthly binge on marijuana, can disrupt the functioning of necessary prescription drugs.

Baby Boomer Healthcare Could Be Affected by Abuse

In addition to medications not working as they should, drug abuse can also make it harder for Baby Boomers to get the healthcare that they need. Like many people, Boomers aren’t as up-front as they could be when sharing their issues around drug use with medical professionals. Unsuspecting doctors could attribute symptoms of drug abuse to other conditions – like the onset of dementia – and prescribe prescription medication that is unnecessary or that might cause side effects with the unknown illegal drugs.

To overcome the struggle of Baby Boomer drug abuse, we invite Baby Boomers into our facility openly, giving each client an individualized treatment plan. The program operates on the disease concept model and utilizes cognitive behavioral, experiential and motivational therapies. Each client participates in a mix of group and individual therapies. Some of our specialized offerings include neurofeedback, trauma, anger management, relapse court, nutrition, spirituality, and more, resulting in a comprehensive treatment approach that can be individually tailored for an optimal outcome.

Addiction has no age limit nor does it seclude itself, everyone should be offered treatment and not feel discouraged based on age. Challenges Addiction Treatment Center thrives on diversity and recovery, so should our clients.