Pubdate: Fri, 19 Dec 2014
Source: Chronicle Herald (CN NS)
Copyright: 2014 The Halifax Herald Limited
Contact:  http://www.herald.ns.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/180
Author: Janet Bickerton
Note: Janet Bickerton is a board member of The Coalition, in Sydney. 
It aims to reduce the spread of blood-borne pathogens and sexually 
transmitted infections using a population health approach and by 
addressing health inequities.

COMPASSION FOR VICTIMS OF ADDICTION

I think our communities could benefit from a fulsome dialogue about 
addiction and how we respond to those who suffer from it.

We need a compassionate discussion that engages our hearts and our 
minds and that avoids blaming and shaming the ultimate victim, the 
person who is addicted. Using our community newspapers might be a way 
to have such a dialogue.

We all have access to myriad drugs - prescribed, non-prescribed, 
licit, illicit, some socially acceptable and others not. We are 
bombarded by marketing and messaging that encourages us to use drugs 
of one form or another. So it should be no surprise that medicating 
ourselves has become the answer to our problems and our pain.

The result, it seems, is watching an increasing number of our fellow 
citizens fall into a life of serious substance abuse. These people 
may have been us, our children, our friends, our colleagues. Or they 
may be strangers we pass on our streets.

Our collective response, for the most part, has come from a place of 
fear and confusion. Recently, graffiti on a local building said, "Die 
Druggies Die!!" This message drives the addicted person further into 
isolation, shame and drug use.

We can all relate to someone's fear. It is startling and threatening 
when people, young or old, become addicted to powerful substances and 
do things they would never normally do, when they lie or steal or 
sell themselves to get their drug, when they are no longer recognizable.

But can we just imagine, for a moment, the level of suffering of the 
person who is addicted? It is never someone's life plan to become an "addict."

How do people end up like this? Why don't they just stop?

It's complex, of course, as life tends to be. We all engage in 
harmful behaviours despite their consequences. Why some of us become 
addicted to that behaviour and others do not has mostly to do with 
our neurobiology and our personal history of trauma.

Renowned physician and addictions specialist Dr. Gabor Mate says all 
his clients who inject in North Vancouver have a history of childhood 
trauma and the female clients have histories of childhood sexual 
abuse. Dr. Mate feels it takes a whole community to help prevent and 
cure the resulting pain from this type of trauma, but unfortunately 
we are not yet there.

He continues his harm reduction work with the addicted population 
despite the fact that most are never able to completely stop their 
use. He does not consider his work a failure because his aim is to 
reach out and help people reduce the harm (both to themselves and 
others) that results from their addictive behaviour. He helps them to 
be as healthy as they can be and to build trusting relationships so 
they will know where to turn when they are ready to begin the journey 
to recovery.

People and organizations in many of our communities are working 
tirelessly toward the same objectives. In Cape Breton, one of those 
organizations is the former AIDS Coalition, now known as simply The 
Coalition. They house the Sharp Advice Needle Exchange.

We have so much to learn and understand about addiction. We do know 
it is extremely complex and our knowledge is growing as we learn more 
about how our brain functions and how the brain and environment 
interact. But despite scientific evidence, we seem trapped in an old 
way of thinking about addiction, based on a moralistic model that 
puts the responsibility for use and recovery solely on the individual.

We all need to take some time to learn more about addiction so we can 
help prevent it, help those who are in the throes of it and help 
sustain those in recovery from relapsing into severe use. What does 
not help is further isolating and ostracizing people who are living 
with addiction. They desperately need to be treated with the basic 
respect and dignity we afford all humans.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom