They erode and ultimately destroy personal, family and professional life. They lead to death from illness or accidents in a frequency that is only paralleled by cancer and heart disease. They tend to be resistant to traditional methods of treatment, personal help and support. If anything, they get worse. There is a way out of the maze.
Real help is available and recovery is possible.
Recovery is not inevitable. It has to be worked for and it requires a basic humility to accept the need for outside help - just as if one had broken a leg. Perhaps initially all one needs to accept is that one's own methods, for all their good intentions and apparent common sense, do not appear from month to month or year to year to be working as they should or having the desired effect in the long term. With this acceptance and with the capacity to commit one's self to following a straightforward daily programme of recovery, there is hope for everybody, regardless of how much suffering has been endured or how many other forms of treatment have failed. Often the strongest long-term recovery comes in those who were given up for lost and who even believed themselves to be beyond help.