The United States Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has declared September to be National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month. It's a fantastic event, and many, many people will benefit from the education and acceptance SAMHSA is promoting. In addition, this year's theme, “Join the Voices for Recovery: Saving Lives, Saving Dollars,” is raising awareness about the financial and human costs of substance abuse disorders. According to their website, SAMHSA is “highlighting the benefits that investing in treatment can have on those who enter recovery, their families, and the larger community.”
Drug and alcohol addictions are unquestionably terrible problems in American society today. Not only does substance abuse destroy lives, but taxpayers, insurance companies and families spend billions of dollars in direct and indirect costs each year.
So what about process addictions? We see the emotional and financial toll of gambling and financial disorders, eating disorders and sex addiction every day. Even if they are labeled “compulsions” instead of “addictions,” don't they fit under the “mental health services” portion of SAMHSA?
Apparently not.
And I wanted to know why.
I called SAMHSA's hotline telephone number and asked a very nice man why eating disorders, gambling and financial addiction and sex addiction weren't included anywhere on SAMHSA's website. “Are they topics you have researched, or that you address?” I asked.
“No, I don't think they are,” he responded.
“Why is that?” I asked.
Long pause.
“You know, let me get you the phone number for the Office of Applied Studies,” he responded.
I called the number he gave me, and another very nice person answered the phone. I asked her the same question.
“No, we don't do any of that,” she said. “I know we do things on drugs, alcohol and tobacco, but I can't think of anything we might have on those types of things.”
“Why is that?” I asked.
She laughed. I laughed.
“I can't answer that,” she said.
She laughed. I laughed.
“Really,” I said. “I was on the SAMHSA website, and I see that, for Recovery Month, the focus this year is on the high cost associated with drug and alcohol addiction in our country. I see the high cost associated with eating disorders, sex addiction and financial disorders every day. Do you have any research or programs associated with process addictions?”
She put me on hold to ask someone else. When she returned to the telephone, she said, “There's nothing ongoing. There's kind of like a line ... is it an addiction, or is it a compulsion?” she explained.
“OK,” I said. “But, let's say, for argument's sake, that it's a compulsion. Wouldn't that fall under the mental health part of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration?”
She laughed. I laughed.
“Really,” I said.
“I don't know,” she said. “I can't answer that.”
She directed me to the June of 1999 Presidential study conducted by the National Gambling Impact Study Commission. It took two years to compile, and was given to the President, Congress, governors and tribal leaders. “You might want to check that out,” she told me.
It turns out that report was, indeed, very enlightening. It outlined the criteria for pathological gambling, said it was, indeed, a huge problem, recommended restrictions on the availability of gambling venues and on advertising, said nearly 11 million people are either “lifetime problem” or pathological gamblers, and 7.9 percent of the adult population in the US is “at risk.” They estimated that the annual direct costs of gambling in the US are $5 billion per year, and the estimated lifetime costs (which include things like bankruptcy, arrests, legal fees for divorce, etc.) to be $40 billion per year.
Which means that our federal government is aware of the impact of at least one process addiction. Which means that it's all the more absurd that they aren't addressed by SAMHSA.
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