~Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place~ Zora Neale Hurston
Love of fellow alcoholics and drug addicts, whom I've been blessed to meet on my journey, has inspired me to dedicate the rest of my life to help eliminate the stigma of this horrendous brain disease called addiction. Anyone can get addicted like anyone can get cancer. What causes these diseases? I learned in rehab that for addiction and cancer, it's about 50% genetics and 50% lifestyle choices. People who are recovering from cancer are called survivors, but those who have survived addiction aren't regarded with the same esteem. It's most often times considered a character flaw, but how many character flaws such as lying and cheating kill millions of people every year directly or indirectly?
Like with most other things in life, what we don't know, is feared. People used to have to be anonymous or institutionalized because of blindness, epilepsy, divorce, AIDS, homosexuality, etc. Alcoholics Anonymous was created in 1935. Do we still have to be anonymous 76 years later? There are millions of people suffering from addiction, but along with the disease, we battle shame from ourselves and society. There are no big telethons or run/walks for people struggling with addiction. We've seemed to have evolved with many subjects, but we're way behind in educating people especially kids. We're stuck on the "Just Say No" image depicting an egg frying in a pan which symbolized a brain on drugs. We need to take it more seriously than that as no one would dare use something as simplistic as a fried egg to describe someone's breasts or prostates on cancer.
I hope to do my small part in erasing hateful stereotypes one person at a time. I've come out at home, work, church, gym, etc. I've told family, friends, co-workers, peers, acquaintances, strangers, etc. People have read my blog from 21 different countries (welcome Vietnam!). I give all the glory to God because He's given me the strength. I was a loudmouth drunk and now I can be a loudmouth sober when it comes to protecting and helping my friends with this deadly disease.
Love of fellow alcoholics and drug addicts, whom I've been blessed to meet on my journey, has inspired me to dedicate the rest of my life to help eliminate the stigma of this horrendous brain disease called addiction. Anyone can get addicted like anyone can get cancer. What causes these diseases? I learned in rehab that for addiction and cancer, it's about 50% genetics and 50% lifestyle choices. People who are recovering from cancer are called survivors, but those who have survived addiction aren't regarded with the same esteem. It's most often times considered a character flaw, but how many character flaws such as lying and cheating kill millions of people every year directly or indirectly?
Like with most other things in life, what we don't know, is feared. People used to have to be anonymous or institutionalized because of blindness, epilepsy, divorce, AIDS, homosexuality, etc. Alcoholics Anonymous was created in 1935. Do we still have to be anonymous 76 years later? There are millions of people suffering from addiction, but along with the disease, we battle shame from ourselves and society. There are no big telethons or run/walks for people struggling with addiction. We've seemed to have evolved with many subjects, but we're way behind in educating people especially kids. We're stuck on the "Just Say No" image depicting an egg frying in a pan which symbolized a brain on drugs. We need to take it more seriously than that as no one would dare use something as simplistic as a fried egg to describe someone's breasts or prostates on cancer.
I hope to do my small part in erasing hateful stereotypes one person at a time. I've come out at home, work, church, gym, etc. I've told family, friends, co-workers, peers, acquaintances, strangers, etc. People have read my blog from 21 different countries (welcome Vietnam!). I give all the glory to God because He's given me the strength. I was a loudmouth drunk and now I can be a loudmouth sober when it comes to protecting and helping my friends with this deadly disease.
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