The fight against drug abuse can’t start until you let it. If you’re going to get sober, it’s going to be because you find the courage to admit that you have a problem, and to seek the help you need from a drug addiction treatment facility you can trust. If left untreated, drug abuse will ruin your life. Successful drug abuse rehab will save it. For your own sake, for the sake of the people who care about you…make today the day you start finding that out on your own terms.

The fact that you’ve made it this far shows you don’t need a lecture on the perils of substance abuse. You know that addiction is an awful disease. Now all that remains is for you to do something about it. The day you check into a drug rehabilitation center will be the day you start rediscovering the world as you used to know it, and yourself as you used to be. It’s hard to imagine how anyone could ever need any more persuading than that.

However, we now know more about where and how cocaine acts in the brain, including how the drug produces its pleasurable effects and why it is so addictive. Through the use of sophisticated technology, scientists can actually see the dynamic changes that occur in the brain as an individual takes the drug. They can observe the different brain changes that occur as a person experiences the “rush,” the “high,” and, finally, the craving of cocaine. They can also identify parts of the brain that become active when a cocaine addict sees or hears environmental stimuli that trigger the craving for cocaine. Because these types of studies pinpoint specific brain regions, they are critical to identifying targets for developing medications to treat cocaine addiction.

One of NIDA’s most important goals is to translate what scientists learn from research, in order to help the public better understand drug abuse and addiction, and to develop more effective strategies for their prevention, treatment, drug detox and drug rehabilitation. We hope that this compilation of scientific information on cocaine will help to inform readers about the harmful effects of cocaine abuse, and that it will assist in prevention and treatment efforts.

The practical implication here? You have to be ready for a fight the day you check into a drug and alcohol treatment center. However tough you think you are, drug and alcohol treatment will test your nerve, and try your resolve. Rehab, in fact, may well be the toughest thing you ever do. But that doesn’t mean it won’t be worth it. The day you check into an addiction treatment center will be the first day of the rest of your life. For your own sake, don’t wait any longer to finally start learning the truth for yourself.

If you’re here, reading this, you don’t need anyone to tell you how awful addiction is, and how important drug treatment programs can be to drug treatment patients. Successful addiction recovery will give you your life back, and help you rediscover the world as you used to know it. To get where you’re trying to go, though, you have to take the first step. No drug treatment program can work if you as a drug rehab patient are unwilling or unable to make it work. For your own sake, don’t wait any longer to finally make the right choice.

I couldn’t have beaten my OxyContin problem without help. Prescription drug treatment more or less saved my life, if you really want to know: saved me from myself, saved me from that overwhelming need that makes prescription drug addiction so hard to overcome in the first place. Without OxyContin treatment, I wouldn’t be here today. And for that, I suppose, I can’t be anything but grateful.

Maybe you or someone you care about has succumbed to OxyContin abuse. You aren’t alone. Every year, millions of Americans fall victim to drug abuse. And every year, millions of Americans get healthy in drug treatment centers. You can be among them, if you have the courage to get help. Your future, you might say, is in your hands. How you shape it is up to you.

The drug abuse treatment patient who buys in is the one who really wants to get better; the one who’s engaged with his healing and who’s committed to the fight. The drug abuse treatment patient who doesn’t buy in is the one never makes that commitment; the drug abuse treatment patient who doesn’t buy in talks about wanting to get better without really meaning it, or at least without understanding what it means to mean it. The drug abuse treatment patient who doesn’t buy in is the one who waits to get healed, and who expects drug abuse treatment doctors to do the heavy lifting for him.

The drug abuse treatment patient who doesn’t buy in, in the end, is the drug treatment patient who doesn’t get better. The drug abuse treatment patient who does, well…

Let’s just say there’s nothing sweeter than an investment that pays long-run dividends.