Montana Addiction Treatment and Info

Although Montana enjoys a wide variety of natural attractions, it also struggles with high rates of substance abuse and addiction. This is in spite of the fact that there are many professional addiction treatment and rehabilitation programs in place to aid addicts overcome their conditions.

Addiction in Montana

Since Montana is the 4th largest state, it comes as no surprise that there are many substances of abuse here. This is in spite of the fact that residents and visitors alike have the opportunity to enjoy all the attractions that the state has to offer - including its countryside as well as the Yellowstone National Park.

Highway patrol officials, for instance, saw an increase of 547 percent in the number of drug related arrests they made from 2010 to 2015. The ACLU - the American Civil Liberties Union - also reported that 90 percent of all the people who are incarcerated in this state are in jail due to offenses linked to drugs.

Some figures linked to the abuse of illicit drugs in the state include:

• 23 percent of Montana's youth were abusing marijuana on a regular basis
• 25 percent of young adults in this state reported that they had used an illicit substance in the month before a recent study
• Between 2010 and 2014, substance abuse was the reason why the state reported 26829 hospitalizations and visits to an emergency room
• Between 2010 and 2015, drug violations linked to heroin increased by more than 1500 percent
• From 2010 to 2015, the meth violations reported in the state increased by a total of 427 percent
• In 2015, 31 percent of all drug violations reported in Montana were linked to methamphetamine while 47 percent were related to marijuana

Commonly Abused Substances in Montana

It has also been estimated that about 10 percent of the residents of Montana abuse alcohol or drugs. consider the following findings about the most common substances of abuse in this state:

1. Alcohol

Alcohol is one of the most common drugs taken in Montana. For some years now, this substance has been causing problems in the state. Some figures about the rates of alcohol use in Montana include:

• 20 percent of adults in the state engaged in binge drinking at least once in the month before a survey that put similar rates at the national level at 16.3 percent
• 61 percent of teenagers in high schools across the state reported that they have binge drank at least once in their lives
• Between 2006 and 2010, alcohol was responsible for 390 deaths in the state - this was at a rate of more than 37 lives lost among every segment of the population comprised of 100000 people
• Between 2010 and 2014, more than 41595 people visited an emergency room or were hospitalized due to this substance

That said, a total of 2003 people checked into an addiction treatment program in Montana in 2010 for abusing alcohol as their only drug. Another 2699 people received similar recovery services for abusing alcohol with another secondary intoxicating substance.

2. Opioids

Like the rest of the United States, the opioid epidemic has been causing problems in Montana. Figures linked to the abuse of this class of drugs include:

• 70 percent of all prescription opioid abusers get these medications from friends and family members
• From 2011 to 2013, prescription medications like opioids were linked to overdoses that led to the death of 359 adults in the state
• More than 9 percent of all the young adults in the state had taken a prescription opioid pain relief medication such as Vicodin or OxyContin for a non-medical reason within the year prior to a research study

In 2010, a total of 841 people were admitted into a recovery program in the state for abusing opioids other than heroin. Of this number, 54.1 percent were female while the remaining 45.9 percent were male.

3. Marijuana

Among all admissions into a treatment center in Montana, marijuana is cited as the most common substance of abuse. In 2010, 29.5 percent of these admissions involved people between the ages of 12 and 17.

4. Amphetamines

In 2010 also, 498 people were enrolled in professional addiction recovery programs in the state for abusing amphetamines. 23.7 percent of these admissions were people between the ages of 26 and 30 years.

Drug Related Fatalities and Injuries in Montana

Drug use was the direct cause of 132 deaths in this state in 2007. The same year, Montana lost 268 lives to motor vehicle accidents while incidents involving firearms claimed 139 lives. This goes to show that substances such as alcohol and prescription opioids - among many others - continue wreaking havoc all across Montana among the people it touches.

Addiction Prevention in Montana

In 2017, Montana passed legislation that called for standing orders for naloxone (Evzio and Narcan). Today, this drug is available without a prescription to anyone who has a high risk of suffering an opioid overdose - as well as their family and loved ones. This is because naloxone is effective at reversing the adverse effects of an opioid overdose.

The state also has many agencies that have been running programs designed to reduce the rates of substance abuse and addiction among local residents. Examples of these agencies and groups include:

• Alliance for Youth
• Montana High School Association through the Aim Higher Program
• Montana Meth Project
• Montana Rural Health Initiative
• Resolve the Montana Educational Campaign
• State Department of Health and Human Services
• State Office of Public Instruction
• The Office of the Attorney General

In particular, the Resolve Montana Program has been focusing on reducing the rates of prescription drug abuse among residents. For instance, it has been encouraging more parents to discuss this issue with their children because research shows that children who learn about the risks of substance abuse at home have a 20 percent less risk of engaging in this behavior.

Addiction Treatment in Montana

A total of 7744 people were enrolled in an addiction treatment and rehabilitation center in Montana in 2010. Of this number, 32 percent were female while the remaining 68 percent were male.

The rates of alcohol and drug abuse in the past year within the Montana region - and beyond - have consistently been higher than anywhere else in the United States. From 2005 to 2006, these rates were ranked highly for every age group in the state.

Further, the rates of illicit substance abuse and addiction among people between the ages of 12 and 17 were ranked to be the among the highest across the entire nation - showing just how serious the teen drug use problem has become in the state.

If you are suffering from a substance use disorder or you have also been diagnosed with a co-occurring mental health or medical disorder, you are going to need accredited addiction treatment - and sometimes dual diagnosis - services to be able to overcome these conditions. The following are some of the programs that might be offered to help you achieve a state of complete recovery:

i) Medical Detox

The goal of medical detox is to help you manage your withdrawal symptoms and drug cravings. These effects will come up when you stop abusing your favorite drugs as a response to the physical dependence that you would have developed to these substances.

Without medical detox, you may suffer too much from these symptoms. Further, your risk of relapse could be heightened - leading to an inevitable drug overdose if you continue abusing substances at the same volume or frequency you used to before you were enrolled in the addiction treatment program.

ii) Inpatient Drug Rehab

Once you have completed the detox program successfully, you may be encouraged to go for additional treatment to overcome your psychological, emotional, and behavioral dependence. This treatment may be offered on an inpatient or residential basis.

This effectively means that you will be living at the recovery center as you work on overcoming your addiction as well as addressing the various issues that may have led you to drugs in the first place.

Inpatient addiction treatment is recommended if you have a severe substance use disorder and if you have also been diagnosed with co-occurring medical or mental health disorders. It is the most comprehensive type of drug rehab available today both in Montana as well as in the rest of the United States.

iii) Outpatient Drug Rehab

If your addiction is less severe and you have not displayed any signs and symptoms of a co-occurring disorder, you may be able to benefit from an outpatient addiction treatment program.

In this program, you do not have to live at the recovery center. Instead, you can schedule your treatments to take place a couple of times each week for several hours every time you visit the center.

Then, you can spend the rest of your time going about your normal daily routine - as well as taking care of your daily responsibilities at work, home, or school. In this way, outpatient treatment might be ideal if these obligations would make it impractical for you to attend an inpatient drug rehab program.

However, you can also follow both of these forms of treatment on a continuum of care. Ideally, you would go through inpatient treatment until you have achieved some semblance of psychological and physical stability before checking into an outpatient drug rehab program.

Whether you choose inpatient or outpatient treatment or go for both of these options, the following are some of the services that may prove useful to your long term recovery and sobriety in Montana:

• 12 step and non-12 step support group meetings
• Aftercare programming
• Alumni services
• Behavioral therapies
• Cognitive behavioral therapy
• Complementary therapies, such as yoga, meditation, equine therapy, massage therapy, and Ayurvedic medicine
• Coping techniques and mechanisms to help you manage your drug cravings
• Couples counseling
• Dialectical behavior therapy
• Dual diagnosis addiction treatment
• Exercise programs
• Family therapy
• Gender specific therapy
• Group therapy
• Individual counseling
• Life skills management
• Medication assisted treatment
• Motivational interviewing
• Nutrition education
• Relapse prevention
• Specialized addiction treatment
• Stress management tools
• Substance abuse and addiction education
• Vocational counseling

Paying for Addiction Treatment

In Montana as elsewhere in the world, addiction is a debilitating condition that could cause you to lose your job and other sources of income. Further, you may spend all your savings on drugs and alcohol - never learning when you need to stop.

When the time come for you to seek addiction treatment and rehabilitator services, you might not have enough funds to get the help that you need to overcome your growing substance use disorder.

Luckily, there are many different ways to offset your treatment bill. You can do so by paying with private or public insurance options such as Medicare and Medicaid. If you were or are in the military, you can also use military insurance options.

Alternatively, you could look for drug rehab programs that could offer you treatment on a payment or sliding fee scale plan. This way, you would continue working through your recovery before paying for your treatment during and after you receive these recovery services.

Another option would be to count on the support of your friends, family, colleagues, and other loved ones - or even complete strangers through fund raising platforms such as GoFundMe.

Getting Help

Irrespective of the severity, nature, or extent of your addiction, it is recommended that you check into an addiction treatment and rehabilitation program as soon as you realize that you have a drug or alcohol related problem. This is because the sooner you get help for this condition, the easier it might be for you to overcome it - before it is too late for you.

Over the long term, professional drug and alcohol rehabilitation services can help you turn your lifestyle around as well as overcome your dependence on these substances that might otherwise have ruined your life or even led to your death.

CITATIONS

http://governor.mt.gov/pressroom/governor-bullock-announces-new-effort-to-combat-opioid-overdoses-in-montana

http://resolvemontana.org/stats/

https://dojmt.gov/wp-content/uploads/Substance-Use-in-Montana-DOJ-FINAL-September-19th.pdf

https://www.carnevaleassociates.com/our-work/emerging-drug-trends-prevention-issue-brief.html

https://www.dea.gov/sites/default/files/2018-11/DIR-032-18%202018%20NDTA%20final%20low%20resolution.pdf

https://www.getsmartaboutdrugs.gov/news-statistics/emerging-drug-trends

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK234579/

https://www.shadac.org/publications/50-state-analysis-drug-overdose-trends-evolving-opioid-crisis-across-states

https://www.unodc.org/documents/wdr/WDR_2010/2.0_Drug_statistics_and_Trends.pdf

For more information about treatment centers in Montana, Click Here.