Author: Christian castillo

On the first of September, the nation recognized the first day of National Drug and Alcohol Addiction Recovery month. Throughout the month, a multitude of communities will come together and hold rallies, write letters, and raise awareness about the importance and impact of recovery.

Unfortunately, words are not and cannot be enough to help the oncoming tide of addiction. Addiction is a powerful disease that does not discriminate; it affects  anyone it can get its hands on and doesn’t care who you are.

Although the US is recognizing a month in which people suffering from an addiction are recovering, there doesn’t seem to be much being done in order to help those suffering from an addiction.

One example is the First Lady herself, Melania Trump. Mrs. Trump has been sparing in the use of her voice as First Lady. Earlier in the year, she spoke out against cyber-bullying, but neither her agenda, nor her words, were backed by anything cohesive.

The same can be said about her message on September first, where she tweeted out a message of support of recovery month and the number to SAMHSA, but then nothing else. In fact, the White House has gone silent.

Earlier this year, the local city governments of Prescott, Phoenix, and Scottsdale Arizona, moved to further regulate sober-living homes, with many owners of the homes stating that overregulation will hurt the continued support that sober-living homes provide.

People in recovery are constantly faced with a negative outlook and stigmatization, constantly being seen and presumed as being on the verge of relapse. The stigma and shame associated with substance abuse will always surround those in recovery- once an addict, always an addict, some might say.

Another way this stigma has negatively affected those seeking recovery is through the War on Drugs. Although a noble effort in an attempt to lessen the pain that drugs have brought upon many communities, it discriminates against those suffering from an addiction by sending them to prison, and forever smearing any future prospects.

The more stigmatization against those with a substance use disorder, the more likely one is to support criminalization of all drug offenses, and one is less likely to support insurance coverage for treatment.

There is a lot of care in the world for anyone attempting to better their life from the harsh realities of addiction, but there is a lot of flak for them as well. There are many activists that help support and provide assistance to those in recovery, but there are also those who don’t.

More needs to be done to help those in need of help. One way to do this is to rid the common theme of institutional apathy; people need to begin caring about the plight of others and need to be aware of the stigma that many are facing.

The most important thing people can do, though, is be made aware of the epidemic that is currently enveloping the country. With the Affordable Care Act, many were able to have addiction treatment partially or fully covered, depending on the insurance.

Another way to help would be to contact your Senators regarding addiction coverage treatment. The American Healthcare Act, that was defeated earlier this year, would have removed the requirement of providing addiction treatment coverage.

The current Graham-Cassidy Healthcare bill would  slash the funding to Medicaid and allow states to change and remove the  mental-health care provisions, essentially allowing states to remove assistance for addiction treatment that many so desperately need. Letting your incumbents know you are against this can make all the difference, especially if many call to voice their concerns.

The issue deserves more than a Facebook update or a single tweet with a phone number. Acknowledging that there is a problem isn’t doing anything to actually fix the problem. Armchair activism is not enough.

How does someone become addicted to a substance, whether it be Alcohol, Heroin or Xanax?

It’s something that seems painfully obvious: someone begins using said drug, like Heroin or Crack Cocaine and after a certain amount of days of continued and unchecked use, that person will become addicted due to toxic chemical hooks that come complimentary with the drugs.

That’s where the public’s knowledge of addiction tends to end and unfortunately, it’s inherently wrong. For starters: that explanation implies that someone just chose and decided to start using drugs on a random whim that he or she may have had. This, in turn, further implies that drug use typically revolves around a continued lapse of morality.

The explanation ultimately relies on the idea that someone is fully aware of the ramifications behind his or her actions, knowing full well that addiction is just around the corner but doing nothing to stop the decline due to an apparent sense of apathy.

Another issue with that explanation is the way it describes chemicals or toxins. The chemicals in drugs are not fish hooks that catch those who are using, but rather, they effect the chemical composition of the brain.

What this means is that the brain chemistry adapts due to the substances and chemicals that are introduced to the body, so much so, that it will need a constant influx of the chemicals just to function on a normal level.

This problem isn’t something new. Addiction is something that has plagued this country for as long as it has existed, but it hasn’t been classified as an epidemic until recently. In 2014, Nora D. Volkow, M.D spoke  in front of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control regarding the country’s Opioid addiction. But addiction, regardless of the substance, has often been viewed upon negatively, often viewing the victim as a perpetrator of moral conundrums.

Typically, when I write an article regarding addiction, I will often mention the stigma that addicted individuals suffer from, on top of their battle with substance abuse and the path to recovery. There is a plethora of reasons why someone may become addicted to a substance, but there is one common theme amongst them: loneliness.

Humans are a social species that craves interaction. When we are happy and healthy, we will bond and connect to those people that are around us, but when we are alone, due to either trauma, isolation, or beaten down in life, we will find something that will give us a sense a relief.

Drugs and alcohol feel good for a time. They provide a false sense of relief and sanity, making any and all pain and hurt to go away. When we’re alone, anything to take the pain and loneliness away will seem like a godsend.

But it’s this isolation that becomes the burden of the masses. The stigma surrounding addiction and substance abuse causes many to lash out in harmful ways. Those we see as addicts are pushed aside into a cluster of similar addicts. We cast them out, fire them from jobs, and send them to prison, a literal cage.

It’s why communities like Alcoholics Anonymous stay so tightly knit and anonymous. The wrath and stigma the whole of society can bring down on someone who comes out and reveals that they suffer from an addiction can be toxic and counterproductive to recovery. With that in mind, staying anonymous is the best course of action.

To battle this epidemic, society needs to change the way it views drug abuse and addiction. It requires the contribution of every member of the public to change this stigmatization of addiction. It needs to be more inclusive of those suffering from a condition that they are suffering from, having them get the help  that is needed.

The opposite of addiction isn’t sobriety; the opposite of addiction is a connection, a way to come together and understand the struggles of one another.