Join CBS News.com’s #14Days on the Wagon challenge beginning Monday, October 6.

And what is this challenge?

The challenge is to give up alcohol and “any non-medically necessary drugs” for the next 14 days. As Parvati Shallow explains in the short video below, this is to help you experience the “real effects of healthier living and feel a little bit of what life is like for those on the path to recovery.”

And why is it so important we understand something of what it’s like for those on their paths to recovery?

According to The Addiction Project, a collaboration of NIDA, NIAAA, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and HBO, “over 23 million Americans struggle with addiction, yet fewer than 10 percent are getting treatment.” This is due in large part to the stigma, misinformation and shame that surrounds substance use disorders. So much stigma, misinformation and shame, in fact, that most people are unaware there are “over 23 million Americans living their lives in recovery from addiction to alcohol and other drugs,” according to Faces & Voices of Recovery.

To put these numbers in perspective, October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, “an annual campaign to increase awareness of the disease.” The image to the right reports there are 2.9 million breast cancer survivors in the U.S. (truly wonderful news). Yet, as a society, are we even remotely aware there are more than 23 million survivors of addiction (those 23 million Americans living their lives in recovery)? And when you look at survival of persons with all forms of cancer, the figure rises to 14.5M. Now this comparison — 14.5M cancer survivors vs. 23M addiction survivors — is NOT to suggest addiction is more important than breast cancer or cancer in general, rather it’s to raise awareness of how far the cancer awareness movement has come, as compared to the addiction recovery awareness movement.

Accept the #14Days on the Wagon Challenge and Pass It Along

I urge you to accept the CBS News.com #14Days on the Wagon challenge and give up alcohol and other non-medically necessary drugs for the next 14 days. In so doing, you will be helping raise awareness about the 23 million Americans living their lives in recovery AND the 23 million who still struggle with the disease. 

For more about the addiction recovery movement, check out:

Faces and Voices of Recovery

Facing Addiction With NCADD

For more about the disease of addiction, check out:

“The Addiction Project,” created by NIAAA, NIDA, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and HBO

Drugs, Brains and Behaviors: The Science of Addiction,” created by NIDA.

And please help spread the word by challenging your friends and family to go on the wagon and sharing your challenge tweets, photos and posts using the hashtag, #14Days. To get you started – here’s a tweet size announcement should you accept the challenge:

I’ve joined the #14Days onthe Wagon challenge 2 show solidarity w/the 23M Americans in recovery&raise awareness for those who still struggle

• Bio
• Latest Posts

Lisa Frederiksen

Author | Speaker | Consultant | Founder at BreakingTheCycles.com

Lisa Frederiksen is the author of hundreds of articles and 12 books, including her latest, "10th Anniversary Edition If You Loved Me, You'd Stop! What you really need to know when your loved one drinks too much,” and "Loved One In Treatment? Now What!” She is a national keynote speaker with over 30 years speaking experience, consultant and founder of BreakingTheCycles.com. Lisa has spent the last 19+ years studying and simplifying breakthrough research on the brain, substance use and other mental health disorders, secondhand drinking, toxic stress, trauma/ACEs and related topics.

Latest posts by Lisa Frederiksen (see all)

• Does a Loved One Have to Hit Bottom? - November 20, 2022
• Resources for Parents of Children with Substance Use and Mental Disorders - October 18, 2022
• 4 Things to Support Brain Health and Function for Recovery - August 30, 2022