Sorry, but protesting outside of the state house is not going to change anything. For some reason, people think that government can solve their problems, but you have to be a little touched to really believe that.
Government will never solve addiction or ‘fight the stigma’, as it were. In fact, government will never help anybody with anything. Their various interventions have always been an abject failure, and will always continue to be.
All stereotypes are stereotypes because there is some truth to them, otherwise stereotypes wouldn’t exist. Do you think it’s a stereotype that addicts are selfish? Sure. And isn’t that stereotype true? Obviously. So the fact that we attach a stigma to addiction means there is probably a good reason to attach it, like perhaps the fact that it’s wrong to use drugs! We attach a stigma to things that in our hearts, minds and guts just don’t feel right. There is nothing normal about a drug addict wasting away after living so selfishly and causing so much pain to so many. Addiction is twisted, so of course there is a stigma attached to it. There should be! And there are a million good reasons to do so.
This new age nonsense of breaking the stigma, absconding responsibility, blaming the disease and putting our arms around the addict is simply causing us to smirk inside, knowing that we have once again successfully manipulated you.
Fine disagree, but you can’t disagree that having a nasty stigma associated with addiction certainty gives us a good reason NOT to be an addict, or rather, to go get better. Nobody wants to be that dirty jammed shithead everybody is repulsed by. Nobody wants to be that guy. So maybe the fact that we find addiction selfish and repulsive is a good thing. In fact, that perception is what save my life.
Proud because of where I was and who I was and where I am now and who I am now.
Grateful because my darkness prompted me to reach out for something powerful, and what I found changed my life so dramatically that I can find nothing but gratitude. I am humbled by what happened to me up North, and what I have gained is worth the price of being a drug addict and an alcoholic. No, I’m not kidding.
Many of us and our loved ones fear the stigma we will forever carry around with us. According to such a fear, I have the “stigma” of having been a drug-addicted lunatic. It may or may nor bring you solace to know that none of my history do I consider a stigma, and of course, all that truly matters is how I feel about it, not the world. Plus I’ve found that by accepting and loving who and what I am, the world tends to as well (Law of attraction, if you will).
Sure when the moment came and I finally had to step into the light and become an ‘open book’ to recover, I feared the same. But what happened was just the opposite. Being an open book brought me freedom – freedom from having to lie, freedom from the weight of those lies, and a freedom that comes from acceptance of my past. Furthermore, the process I undertook to recover had such a profound effect on me that I couldn’t help but have respect and even gratitude for my humiliating past, as it gave me the fuel I needed to create the life I have now.
If the person we become is someone we love and respect more than the person we were, someone who stands with their feet on the ground and looks the world in the eye, we won’t shun our past but accept it confidently, and perhaps even be proud and grateful for it, as ridiculous as that may sound.
God, thank you for touching me that night, giving me power and removing my fear…