When I became a licensed substance abuse counselor and started writing about Addiction Treatment, I believed my work would find its audience. But I was wrong. Now, while my book, 49 Tips and Insights for Understanding Addiction did win an award, it just didn’t sell. Furthermore, when I was shopping a new manuscript that contained excerpts from addicts’ journals, publishers rejected it because, according to them, books like that just don’t sell. I gathered the the last piece of evidence telling me that addiction treatment isn’t a popular topic this weekend. I called tech support for the company that hosts my website about search engine optimization tools and the technician told me that drug and alcohol treatment sites really don’t perform well. She didn’t offer any insights as to why they don’t. To her, trying to get a blog going about addiction treatment wasn’t going to be easy.

Sadly, she’s right. I’ve been writing and maintaining my blog for over seven (7) years and it just hasn’t gotten its legs. I don’t know why; I write consistently and I think what I write is helpful. But, it seems to me that people don’t want to hear about addiction treatment. It’s almost as though if they hear about it, it makes it real. I think that most people want to live their lives without knowing how bad things can get and I remind them that there is real suffering in the world. Even if people have experienced addiction, they just don’t want to hear it.

I really don’t care, though. Depression, anxiety, and addiction can all be treated. They are real and they cause suffering, but they don’t HAVE to be death sentences. At this point, I will continue writing about topics pertaining to addiction treatment because I have no doubt they can be helpful. Even if they’re harsh, at times, we all have to be aware of problems before we can solve them. These days, suffering is real and getting more and more prevalent. We have to come together to solve the issues, but if no one talks about them, we can’t even begin to see the nature of the problem we face. Therefore, I will write, even if no one wants to read. If nothing else, at least I’m sharpening my sword.

Juan Blea is an award-winning author, project manager, and substance abuse counselor working and living in Santa Fe, NM. Learn more about him and his work at: jblea1016.com.