| According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, | | | | women and drug abuse. |
| more than 4 million women use drugs today in | | | | Often, women who use drugs have underlying |
| America. In the past year alone, 9 million women | | | | problems which not only exasperate their drug abuse, |
| used drugs illegally and another 50% of all women | | | | but are the root cause of it. Women may seek the |
| between the ages of 15 to 44 will try drugs at least | | | | use of drugs as self-medication for depression, |
| once in their lifetime. These troubling numbers are | | | | anxiety, and other mental disorders. In fact, the link |
| compounded by the fact that many instances of | | | | between drug abuse and mental disorders often go |
| women and drug abuse go unreported. Many women | | | | hand in hand, complicating the diagnosis and |
| suffer from their drug abuse and addictions silently, | | | | treatment. A special method called dual diagnosis is |
| secretly hiding their problem from friends and family. | | | | therefore necessary to assess patients with |
| Finding help, therefore, can be a difficult task for | | | | co-occurring disorders. |
| women who abuse drugs. Admitting that they have a | | | | Though every rehabilitation program may claim to |
| problem is often difficult particularly when friends and | | | | offer dual diagnosis, only a few have licensed |
| family are unaware of the drug use. Women may | | | | practitioners who specialize in it. Individuals seeking |
| deny drug abuse out of fear and shame that their | | | | treatment for drug and/or alcohol abuse can find |
| family will be taken away from them if they appear | | | | more information at HarmonyPlace.net. |
| to be unfit caretakers, a stigma associated with | | | | |