How to overcome any addiction


SAMHSA’s National Helpline | SAMHSA

Your browser is not supported

Switch to Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari

Main page content

  • SAMHSA’s National Helpline is a free, confidential, 24/7, 365-day-a-year treatment referral and information service (in English and Spanish) for individuals and families facing mental and/or substance use disorders.

    Also visit the online treatment locator.

SAMHSA’s National Helpline, 1-800-662-HELP (4357) (also known as the Treatment Referral Routing Service), or TTY: 1-800-487-4889 is a confidential, free, 24-hour-a-day, 365-day-a-year, information service, in English and Spanish, for individuals and family members facing mental and/or substance use disorders. This service provides referrals to local treatment facilities, support groups, and community-based organizations.

Also visit the online treatment locator, or send your zip code via text message: 435748 (HELP4U) to find help near you. Read more about the HELP4U text messaging service.

The service is open 24/7, 365 days a year.

English and Spanish are available if you select the option to speak with a national representative. Currently, the 435748 (HELP4U) text messaging service is only available in English.

In 2020, the Helpline received 833,598 calls. This is a 27 percent increase from 2019, when the Helpline received a total of 656,953 calls for the year.

The referral service is free of charge. If you have no insurance or are underinsured, we will refer you to your state office, which is responsible for state-funded treatment programs. In addition, we can often refer you to facilities that charge on a sliding fee scale or accept Medicare or Medicaid. If you have health insurance, you are encouraged to contact your insurer for a list of participating health care providers and facilities.

The service is confidential. We will not ask you for any personal information. We may ask for your zip code or other pertinent geographic information in order to track calls being routed to other offices or to accurately identify the local resources appropriate to your needs.

No, we do not provide counseling. Trained information specialists answer calls, transfer callers to state services or other appropriate intake centers in their states, and connect them with local assistance and support.

  • Suggested Resources

    What Is Substance Abuse Treatment? A Booklet for Families
    Created for family members of people with alcohol abuse or drug abuse problems. Answers questions about substance abuse, its symptoms, different types of treatment, and recovery. Addresses concerns of children of parents with substance use/abuse problems.

    It's Not Your Fault (NACoA) (PDF | 12 KB)
    Assures teens with parents who abuse alcohol or drugs that, "It's not your fault!" and that they are not alone. Encourages teens to seek emotional support from other adults, school counselors, and youth support groups such as Alateen, and provides a resource list.

    After an Attempt: A Guide for Taking Care of Your Family Member After Treatment in the Emergency Department
    Aids family members in coping with the aftermath of a relative's suicide attempt. Describes the emergency department treatment process, lists questions to ask about follow-up treatment, and describes how to reduce risk and ensure safety at home.

    Family Therapy Can Help: For People in Recovery From Mental Illness or Addiction
    Explores the role of family therapy in recovery from mental illness or substance abuse. Explains how family therapy sessions are run and who conducts them, describes a typical session, and provides information on its effectiveness in recovery.

    For additional resources, please visit the SAMHSA Store.

Last Updated: 08/30/2022

SAMHSA Behavioral Health Treatment Services Locator

Home

Welcome to the Behavioral Health Treatment Services Locator, a confidential and anonymous source of information for persons seeking treatment facilities in the United States or U.S. Territories for substance use/addiction and/or mental health problems.

PLEASE NOTE: Your personal information and the search criteria you enter into the Locator is secure and anonymous. SAMHSA does not collect or maintain any information you provide.

Please enter a valid location.

please type your address

  • FindTreatment.

    gov

    Millions of Americans have a substance use disorder. Find a treatment facility near you.

  • 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline

    Call or text 988

    Free and confidential support for people in distress, 24/7.

  • National Helpline

    1-800-662-HELP (4357)

    Treatment referral and information, 24/7.

  • Disaster Distress Helpline

    1-800-985-5990

    Immediate crisis counseling related to disasters, 24/7.

  • Overview
  • Locator OverviewLocator Overview
  • Locator OverviewLocator Overview
  • Finding Treatment
  • Find Facilities for VeteransFind Facilities for Veterans
  • Find Facilities for VeteransFind Facilities for Veterans
  • Facility Directors
  • Register a New FacilityRegister a New Facility
  • Register a New FacilityRegister a New Facility
  • Other Locator Functionalities
  • Download Search ResultsDownload Search Results
  • Use Google MapsUse Google Maps
  • Print Search ResultsPrint Search Results
  • Use Google MapsUse Google Maps
  • Icon from Find practitioners and treatment programs providing buprenorphine for opioid addiction (heroin or pain relievers). Find practitioners and treatment programs providing buprenorphine for opioid addiction (heroin or pain relievers).
  • Icon from Find practitioners and treatment programs providing buprenorphine for opioid addiction (heroin or pain relievers). Find programs providing methadone for the treatment of opioid addiction (heroin or pain relievers).

The Locator is authorized by the 21st Century Cures Act (Public Law 114-255, Section 9006; 42 U.S.C. 290bb-36d). SAMHSA endeavors to keep the Locator current. All information in the Locator is updated annually from facility responses to SAMHSA’s National Substance Use and Mental Health Services Survey (N-SUMHSS). New facilities that have completed an abbreviated survey and met all the qualifications are added monthly. Updates to facility names, addresses, telephone numbers, and services are made weekly for facilities informing SAMHSA of changes. Facilities may request additions or changes to their information by sending an e-mail to [email protected], by calling the BHSIS Project Office at 1-833-888-1553 (Mon-Fri 8-6 ET), or by electronic form submission using the Locator online application form (intended for additions of new facilities).

Read online “How to overcome any addiction. Simple solutions to complex problems”, Tatyana Trofimenko – LitRes

Book Club “Family Leisure Club”


The publishing house is not responsible for the possible consequences of the implementation of the above recommendations.

The book cannot replace the advice of a qualified specialist

Author's version

© Trofimenko T. G., 2021

© Depositphotos.com / VectorMine, cover, 2021

© Book Club Family Leisure Club, Russian edition, 2021

© Book Club Family Leisure Club, artwork, 2021

Foreword

Addictions… I can’t promise, but I expect after reading of this book, many people will improve not only their mental, but also their physical condition and not only addictions will pass. It seems like magic, but it's just one of the possibilities of informational influence - to heal.

Why can't I promise? Well, information is subtle matter. This is not a pill to take under the standard treatment protocol. And a simple suggestion that this will pass for you, this will pass, you will get rid of this and that, does not work. Too head-on, too straight. In such a case, nothing can be promised at all. You can only admit ... Allow - let in - allow yourself to let in the healing informational impact that you need. Your body itself will filter out what you need from the information flow received from this book. Just read it from start to finish - enjoy this layered informational cake that I made. It's not a pill, it's much more difficult. And the interaction between us goes on such subtle planes that have not yet been studied by science. Science has just entered the path of studying these complex processes. Qualitative information theory began to develop quite recently - in the middle of the last century, and this is such a complex branch of science that very few significant discoveries have been made in it since then. I have devoted my life to studying and applying the qualitative aspects of information impact to help people. This book is my new result. It is written taking into account the new knowledge and skills I have acquired. I develop and offer my readers new fruits of my development, which are much stronger in action than the previous ones.

Why you are interested in this book and what you can do about it

You started reading this book because you think you have an addiction that is bad for you and you want to see what you can do to get rid of it. You may be hoping to find here a list of guidance on what you need to do to become independent. Are you seriously ready to carry out such a huge list of instructions - the length of a whole big book? If you really had such a willingness, you yourself, without any book, would have got rid of anything and would have acquired anything. No advice and orders can save a person from the stable state of the body in which he is. What can be done?

You can gradually (that's what the whole book is being written for) change your stable state to a slightly different one, as if to loosen a situation that is detrimental to you and even disassemble it into components. Take, for example, the Kalashnikov assault rifle. It shoots when assembled, and if it is disassembled into components and even placed side by side on the table, then this weapon will not shoot when disassembled. And in the same way, according to the same principle, any system works. It works as long as all its components are put together and interact. And disassemble the system, or at least remove one single essential component - nothing will work.

Man is a complex information system, and what he does physically depends on his information state, on those information processes and structures that take place in this system. Dependence is, first of all, an information subsystem of the Human system. These are certain information processes in the brain, a certain information structure formed by the mental moves of a person. And it is natural that this informational structure can be destroyed precisely by informational influence. Yes, external. Because so far you have not been able to heal yourself from the inside, and because in the end all these addictions were formed under the influence of external factors. Your life situation has developed in such a way that you have acquired some kind of addiction . You have entered a certain stable information state, characterized by a strong dependence on one or another object (a person can also be an object). Why this state is informational, I explained. It is quite logical that the informational state can be changed precisely by informational influence. In particular, the textual information impact of the book. It cannot be done right away. Because that is why it is a stable state of a complex system called Man, that immediately, without a significant failure in the system, it is not yet possible to bring it from one stable state to another from a scientific point of view. What is this "immediately"? It should be quite rough. And definitely physical. For example, if a person is severely beaten or placed in some very difficult conditions, he may suddenly become indifferent to some person of the opposite sex for whom he suffered. But this will be the price of this person's health! We can't be so rude. That is why I propose a fairly large information impact - such that it is fully received and assimilated (information must be given time to develop in your brain: the information impact that enters your brain, and the information process that controls you, into which it turns, - these are two big differences, as we say in Odessa) it took a lot of time: you need to read this thick book. And then there will still be some aftereffect: the information received will develop in your brain and bear fruit - changes in your way of thinking and life. By the word "information" I do not mean instructions and some kind of information, as many might think. The theory of information has developed significantly since the middle of the last century, when the American scientist Claude Shannon proposed to determine the amount of information precisely by new information for the consumer, which would remove uncertainty from him, and to measure the amount of information in bits. Now science is already considering both the qualitative aspects of information impact and their ability to influence the psychological state of a person. I work precisely with the qualitative aspects of the information flow and help people through the textual information impact of my books.

So, you will now be exposed to an information flow with certain qualitative characteristics. The task of such an impact is to make sure that your addiction no longer bothers you . Look, I set the task a little broader than you might think. Maybe you don't need to get rid of this addiction, huh? There are different circumstances. Perhaps this addiction is the best way out for you in your life situation (depending on what kind of addiction, of course). People are used to scolding themselves for addictions and suffering from the fact that they cannot get rid of them. And this already increases the tension of their psyche, takes away a lot of vital energy and significantly increases anxiety. A increased anxiety - this is just the most important reason for getting psychological addiction. The circle is closed.

What do you want? Do you want to stop suffering? Or do you want to change something in yourself and thereby add suffering to yourself? Or to exchange one suffering for another? We “from every iron” hear how harmful this, and this, and the fifth, and the tenth. And we are horrified: “Oh, but I have it! I eat after six! Horrible! Oh, and I smoke! Nightmare! They said on the radio that you can die from this! You know, you can die from anything. Moreover, we are all bound to die, unfortunately. As soon as civilization began to develop more or less, man began to be indoctrinated by public opinion and advertising. We often do or don't do what we are told to do or not to do. Someone said. From a TV or computer screen. We read it somewhere. One woman said... We, as information systems, are controlled with the help of information. You have already been so manipulated that you have suffering . If it didn't, you wouldn't be interested in this book. Let's now unwind this whole tangle of information - what you have already been told. Suffering is an information state. It is broken by the same information influence. Another thing is that, of course, without changing the life situation, something significant cannot be changed in a person. But after all, a life situation does not arise without the participation of information processes in your brain, right?

What addictions will this book help with

From various. The fact is that some of the main causes of addictions are common, similar. And even if I didn’t name some kind of addiction here, this book will still help you from it. Because everything is analogous. It is physically impossible to consider absolutely all dependencies. I will talk about those that occur most often. However, if I didn’t say something, this does not mean that there will be no impact on this dependence. It even, on the contrary, can be much stronger than those dependencies that I mentioned. Because The strongest impact is the one you can't see, hear or feel. Everyone knows that there is some very dangerous, even fatal disease (I do not want to name diseases here and thereby carry a negative informational impact to my readers). So, it is such a strong disease that erases a person from the face of the earth, it begins in such a way that a person does not feel it. He knows nothing and is already sick. That's what the strongest impact is. It goes at the atomic level. How? Yes, information, of course! There was a failure in the chain of information transmission, the wrong signal went from the brain, and hello - your existence on this planet began to come to an end. And you don't know anything yet! Information is often something that a person cannot comprehend. But it exists and it works. You can not mention the name of the disease or addiction, but give your brain new information processes for processing and thereby transfer it to a new informational state in which this disease or this addiction no longer has a place. Recovery, like illness, begins with microchanges, micromovements in the body - changes at the level of atoms. We cannot feel it. And you will not feel when this process begins in your body. You may even forget that you suffered from anything. It happens. I had some disorders in the body, which I even forgot that I had them. They passed without any treatment, without operations recommended by doctors. I remembered that I had these health problems only when I decided to clean up my papers and found old medical cards. A person simply becomes healthy and lives as healthy, and he is no longer interested in remembering that he had something there. The psyche quickly rebuilds itself from useless information. For her, she is noise that needs to be filtered out.

Postscript to the book posted at the beginning

Some may say: “But what if an addiction, for example, to food, is provoked by clinical depression?”, Or “But what if a person has anorexia (and this is also an addiction) ?”, or “Such people need to see a doctor and a psychologist.” Yes, I do not argue. I also do not urge not to address to doctors or psychologists. I do not urge to refuse medical treatment prescribed by a good specialist. I don't call for anything at all. But it must be taken into account that many people do not have the opportunity to consult a doctor or psychologist. Do you know how expensive it is to treat depression or anorexia? If you don't know, you can watch the video of psychiatrists at YouTube , and you will understand that the treatment of such patients requires the participation of several highly qualified specialists, as well as often finding the patient in a good hospital, where he will be patiently and kindly looked after. Tell me, please, how many people have that kind of money to pay for the work of several specialists who will, figuratively speaking, jump around these people? How many people have money to pay for tests and good drugs? Do you know how much it costs to see a psychiatrist? If you don't know, you can find out. This is easy to do by asking psychiatrists who blog on YouTube . How many people have such material opportunities? But there is still such a problem: a person may not have relatives who would help him, at least just be around, at least take an interest in his well-being. A person can be lonely and without money. Where does he get the resources to pay for medical and psychological care? Where does he even get the resources to live? Situations can be very difficult, and I myself have gone through this. And I also know that contacting a specialist does not guarantee that you will receive the necessary help from him. Because experts are different. You barely found the strength in yourself, turned, stated your problem, but did not receive help. I went through this too. And I perfectly understand that there are people for whom this book will be the only possible source of help. I do not deny medicine and psychology. It's very good to have someone to help you. But how many people are left without help! Generally without any! And this book of mine is an outstretched helping hand from a person who has experienced a lot, including the problems that I am writing about here.

Just as much can not help a person, so much can help. It is impossible to ignore the fact of the successful impact of the psychological attitude. I will be throughout this book, all this text, to introduce into your psyche an attitude towards recovery and correction of your life situation, which has led you to unpleasant consequences. This book will help many people. If there is an attitude firmly embedded in the psyche that this object helps, then it is possible to provide assistance in general with almost any object for which a person was given a strong attitude. And even more text! He sets himself up. A large text is specially written, in which there are many different semantic components - so that each reader finds something of his own in this text, with which he will have an informational resonance. One will be affected by one thing, the other by another, etc. Everyone will take from the text what his body needs, what it resonates with: some component of the informational portrait of the book coincides with some component of your informational portrait, in As a result, a phenomenon of resonance arises, which takes you out of a stable undesirable state, at least to the boundary of the system's stability, and then the processing of you by textual informational influence goes on and on, and you are already being introduced into a new stable state - healthier than the one in which you were before reading the book. By the way, this is why you need to read the entire text of the book without missing anything: you do not know which component of the book's informational portrait will personally affect you. And it may not work at all what you could expect, based on logic. What works is that correlates with the content of your subconscious. The phenomenon of informational resonance is very powerful - it can change a person's life. But it may not occur to you with every text and not with every person. To increase the likelihood of its occurrence, I provided for the presentation of my ideas in different ways, based on the different state of the reader. And I write in a living colloquial language - that's how I talk in real life with friends. This book is not a monograph, and academic speech is out of place in it. It is not from a good life that a person picks up such a book, and in his condition he needs a friend who can understand him and express empathy, and not teach him how to live. This is a living original speech of a living person who empathizes with the reader and has been in similar circumstances, and knows how the reader can feel. In difficult moments, we really need a lively emotional reaction of the interlocutor, and not academically correct speech. When we feel bad, we need to get feedback from the interlocutor not as correct , not as according to some schemes of “patient therapy”, but so that we feel that we are understood and accepted, we are empathized. We do not need "correct phrases" and teachings. It is important for us to feel that someone cares about us . And indifference is not conveyed by academic phrases, it is conveyed by facial expressions, gestures, hugs, lively colloquial speech - that's how it comes from the heart. This is a book, not a personal meeting with me, and I cannot hug you, I cannot cry with you or smile with you. But I can talk to you - that's the way it comes from my heart. As I write this, tears well up in my eyes. I'm with you! I understand you. A person, in order to feel psychologically comfortable, needs all these “curls” in the speech of the interlocutor. This is called information redundancy in information theory. This is redundant, from the point of view of classical information theory, since, from its point of view, it is simply necessary to convey a message. Well, so here it is, this is a message that could be conveyed without informational redundancy: "to use alcohol, nicotine and other drugs, including gambling, is harmful." Well, how? Did it work? You didn't know this until now? No, it is not enough to transmit irreducible information to induce the human body to correct its condition. Modern information theory is no longer limited to taking into account the number of information units, as it was in the middle of the last century, when this science began to develop. Qualitative aspects of information impact are already taken into account, for example, as the author's thoughts are stated. Everything plays a role here: some characteristic words, the manner of constructing a phrase, the semantic rhythm of the text - when, in order to ensure a better assimilation by the reader of some new ideas, they are repeated after some time in other words. It's like an architectural structure: you can just build boxes to hide from the cold and wind, or you can build masterpieces of architecture, decorated with some kind of curlicues, completely unnecessary to perform the function of protection from cold and wind. But in the second case, it is pleasant, psychologically comfortable to be in a city of such architectural works with curlicues, and in the first case, it’s very dull, uninteresting, and for some it’s scary.

Nothing is perfect on this planet. There is nothing that would help absolutely everyone and absolutely everything. But I consider it very harmful to introduce into the mind of a person the attitude that "this will not help." No, will help ! This is how the attitude should be, and I will implement it with all this text, all this friendly conversation between us. I am on your side and I know how you feel now. And I know that perhaps you just have no one to get help from right now, except from me. I approach this task very responsibly and work with you for the result. I am sure that this book of mine will help many. I will try to convey my confidence to you.

Finally, I would like to say that people with clinical depression are unlikely to buy books. And as for anorexia - I myself suffered it and I know how difficult it is to get out of it. And I know that I personally could not be forced to take food by any mere beliefs or orders. I don't want to argue with psychiatrists, but why not try the friendly conversation I suggest here in this book? I'm not here to talk an anorexic into eating. I only mention anorexia in passing, but I write more here about other addictions. However, the principles underlying getting all dependencies are roughly the same. And the fact that I do not focus on anorexia can just have a positive effect on a person suffering from it, since he will not perceive my text as something that threatens the order of things he has created. You have nothing to lose by reading my book, but you can gain freedom.

How to beat any addiction in 7 steps

Anna Pokrovskaya
July 28, 2021

Man is a social being, therefore dependence (in this case on society) is dictated to us by nature. Food, water, air, communication - all these are dependencies, without which our life is impossible. Along with this, there are addictions that adversely affect us, but without them, you can safely exist without causing yourself unnecessary harm. Smoking, alcohol, drugs, social networks - without these things, a person can live a busy life in peace.

Addiction is a condition that changes your habitual behavior, causing you to regularly return to the object of interest, and in case of refusal, feel discomfort, anxiety and depression. Dependence can be both on harmful things (drugs) and on useful things (for example, eating only healthy food).

We tell you how to get rid of bad addictions.

1 step. Admit that you are addicted

Until you understand this, no one can convince you. People can't stop smoking for years because they can't admit to themselves that a couple of cigarettes a day is no big deal. Or maybe you believe that coffee in the morning can instantly set you up for work and get rid of lack of sleep. Be honest with yourself and admit that you have an addiction, which means that if you want to fight it, then even for a while, but your life will gain some discomfort.

2 step. Write a list of arguments for and against

It is very important to analyze why you are doing all this, and then return to these arguments in moments of doubt. If you want to lose weight, then you need a list of reasons to lose weight (feel comfortable on public transport, girls like you, get healthy sleep, fit into your favorite suit, etc.). The more complete the list, the more compelling it will be at times when you want to quit. And most importantly, all the reasons must come from you personally, no matter how crazy your desires are.

3 step. Determine for yourself a strategy for quitting addiction

It can be a smooth and gradual rejection of an addiction that has developed over the years, or it can be a hard one-time rejection of a problem. Here you need to start from your own settings. It’s easier for someone to chop off the shoulder, then wildly stress for a certain period of time, and then realize that you are no longer attracted to this, and someone needs to gradually reduce the dose of addiction in order to eventually understand that you can live in peace even with its absence . However, keep in mind that the latter method requires a systematic approach and takes much longer in time. But no stress for the body.

4 step. Replace the resulting vacuum with things that bring you pleasure

Forcing your body to experience some discomfort, you need to be distracted by pleasant things, otherwise you will feel like a guinea pig. For example, when quitting smoking, think about what things should replace this daily ritual. It could be reading your favorite book, hanging out with friends who don't smoke, or taking a nap that you definitely don't want to smoke.

5 step. Weigh Your Strengths Correctly

Many people fail. They think that quitting something is a trifling matter. During this period, the body will try to fill this void in all possible ways, which means that all your thoughts will be focused on how to get rid of this stress as quickly as possible. Only a serious approach to business will help to give up habits, because it is necessary to take into account not only physical, but also psychological dependence.


Learn more