National Recovery Month 2023 With Hansei Solutions

Friday, September 1st, marks the beginning of National Recovery Month, and Hansei Solutions is proud to share stories from our team members about their experiences with addiction, loss, and recovery.

As you read previews of these stories, which you can view the whole story by following the link, we invite you to reflect on what you can do to raise awareness about substance abuse and treatment. After all, talking and sharing personal stories helps unite the recovery community, providing a safe place for those struggling with addiction.

What Is National Recovery Month?

National Recovery Month has been held every year for the month of September since 1989; formed to promote and bring awareness to addiction and recovery stories. It’s also meant to help highlight and find new evidence-based treatments for substance use and mental health disorders and bring the recovery community and service providers together for a month of reflection and remembrance.

Originally hosted by The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services gave the reigns to Faces & Voices of Recovery in 2020, who adopted the permanent recovery month tagline “Every Person. Every Family. Every Community.”

Through social media posts, events like Walk For Recovery, panels, workshops, and stories from others, Americans struggling with substance use disorder or mental health disorders can feel confident in treatment and recovery programs. As breast cancer awareness is expressed through pink ribbons, you can wear a purple ribbon to show your support for Recovery Month.

Read about International Overdose Awareness Day.

Addiction & Recovery Statistics

The latest National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) revealed that:

• In 2021, more than 16% of Americans 12 and older had a substance use disorder.
  • Almost 30 million people have an alcohol use disorder.
  • 24 million people have a drug use disorder.

• Almost 14% of Americans 18 to 25 had a dual diagnosis (substance use disorder and co-occurring mental health disorder).
• 13.5 percent of young adults aged 18 to 25 had both a substance use disorder and any mental illness in the past year.
• 94% of people with a substance use disorder in 2021 didn’t receive any treatment, with most individuals stating they did not think they needed treatment.
• More than 70% of adults with substance use disorders consider themselves recovering or in recovery. But only 66% of adults with a mental health disorder consider themselves in recovery.

Recovery Stories From Hansei

Throughout September, Hansei Solutions will be releasing stories from our very own team members about their first and second-hand experiences with addiction and recovery. Here’s a preview of some of the stories we’ll post for National Recovery Month.

Jessica’s Story: From Street Cred to Brain Dead: My Addiction Journey 

“My life was far beyond ‘spiraling out of control’ – it was completely unmanageable. I’d lost three close friends to addiction in a month, one of which I’d relapsed with. All of my circumstances and choices seemed to catch up with me; the world was ready to swallow me whole, and I couldn’t see a way out, nor did I want to.”

Read more about Jessica’s story.

Carli’s Story: What My Brother’s Addiction Has Taught Me: A Journey Through Codependency

“Once drug addiction took hold of my older brother’s life, it took a grip on our entire family unit. I was in seventh grade the first time I visited my brother in treatment, and it wasn’t until then that I considered how his addiction impacted me or perhaps even acknowledged it was real despite the trajectory of signs.”

Read more about Carli’s story.

Cathy’s Story: The World Stopped the Day I Lost My Brother

“My brother, two years my junior, believed he had to sacrifice himself in order to provide salvation for me and my sister, a belief he conjured shortly after starting high school, finding both relief and pain in marijuana, oscillating between feelings of devil and deity.”

Read more about Cathy’s story.

Brenna’s Story: I Will Never Be Like My Parents… Until I’m 30

“I woke up Christmas morning, 2021, feeling like death. The night before, we’d left our kids asleep at home, going to the bar after drinking the day away at our annual Christmas Eve celebration. We were just going to drop off my brother and sister-in-law, which turned into ‘we’ll pop in,’ which turned into ‘okay, just a few shots.”

Read more about Brenna’s story.

Miles For Recovery Challenge

To celebrate National Recovery Month, Hansei is teaming up with The N.O.W. Matters More Foundation to raise awareness and funds through a Miles for Recovery Challenge. For each mile walked in September, a donation will be made to the foundation, which helps individuals and families navigate the challenges of choosing addiction and mental health treatment plans.

Read about our most recent summer events.

Contact Hansei Solutions

Contact us today to learn more about Hansei Solutions and our advocacy events and programs. We’re dedicated to helping our clients improve their revenue cycle management and have a partner pushing to improve mental health parity laws and expand behavioral addiction treatment. We can also set you up with a free demo of our EHR and medical billing services so you can get a feel of how we can help your practice.