Stigma stands in way of recovery

Stigma.

It’s something folks who seek to help those who struggle with addiction have been trying to erase for years.

Unfortunately, it remains alive and well.

That much became clear when Jay County Drug Prevention Coalition decided to move forward with plans to purchase a house in Redkey and develop it into a sober-living facility.

Redkey residents flooded the next Jay County Council meeting to rail against the effort. They showed up again at last week’s Redkey Town Council meeting.

There was a “we’re better than them” tenor to the comments. Keep them out of our town. Keep them off of our street.

Stigma is a difficult thing to overcome.

The reality, whether we choose to see it or not, is that drugs are already in our county. They are already in our town. They are already on our streets. They may well be right next door.

It’s difficult to imagine that anyone has not been touched in some way by substance abuse, whether personally or with a family member or friend. 

It’s not just “those bad people over there.” Anyone can become an addict, regardless of economic status, educational attainment, gender, race or any other characteristic.

It might also be useful to provide some education about addiction.

According to Harvard Medical School, one of the keys to attempting to stop a habit of substance abuse is to “change your environment.” That’s exactly what a sober-living facility would do — provide a safe place for those trying to overcome addiction to get back on track. We also recommend Indiana Next Level Recovery (in.gov/recovery) the National Institute on Drug Abuse (nida.nih.gov) and the Mayo Clinic (mayoclinic.org).

Giant capital letters on the Indiana Next Level Recovery website spell out: “See the person. Not just their addiction.”

Scroll down and you’ll find this disturbing statistic: “Nationwide, 4.2 million people who felt they needed treatment did not seek it because they feared negative attitudes from their community.”

Those negative attitudes have been illustrated in Jay County this month.

We clearly have more work to do in order to erase the stigma of substance abuse.

To deal with this problem, we must live in the real world rather than some fantasy land where substance abuse is something that “bad people” do in other places.

The folks who spoke in opposition to the facility in Redkey are not bad people either. But we do feel their response was misguided, perhaps motivated by fear rather than hope.

So, let’s look at this issue another way:

If your spouse, your sibling, your child or your friend was dealing with substance abuse and addiction, would you want there to be a sober-living facility in your community to help them?

We suspect, and hope, the answer is yes. — R.C.