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Reducing the Stigma of Substance Use Disorder Pittsfield, Massachusetts (MA) - Berkshire Health Systems
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Health Take-Away

Health Take-Away

  • Alcohol's Impact on Breast Cancer Risk
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  • Have a Healthy Summer
  • Head to a Farmers' Market
  • Just Breathe
  • Lyme Disease Facts
  • Mindful Eating
  • Empathy in Healthcare
  • Preparing Your Family for an Emergency
  • Helping Someone to Cope with Opioid Addiction
  • Breast Cancer Awareness: Mammograms Save Lives
  • Antibiotic Resistance
  • Lung Cancer Screening
  • Giving Thanks
  • Healthy Holidays
  • Alcohol's Impact on Breast Cancer Risk
  • Acupuncture Can Help with Relief in Breast Cancer Care
  • Breast Reconstruction Surgery Journey is Personal
  • Building Your Immunity during COVID-19
  • Emotional Toll of COVID-19
  • COVID-19 Anti-Body Testing: What It Tells You What It Won't
  • Treating Varicose Veins
  • Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine: What is OMM
  • Know Your Audiology Options
  • Pets as Therapists
  • Reducing the Stigma of Substance Use Disorder
  • Be Kind to Your Heart
  • Headache Care
  • Managing Presenteeism
  • Don't Struggle with Resolutions
  • Enjoy the Holidays Through the Gift of Giving
  • Seasonal Affective Disorder
  • Save a Life, Lift Your Soul, Give Blood
  • Team Approach for Breast Cancer
  • Surviving Breast Cancer: A Journey
  • Hunger in the Berkshires
  • Vaccinations Help Avoid Needless Risks
  • Embrace Mindfulness
  • Low Carb High Fat Diet has Benefits
  • Probiotics Uses the Good Bugs to Fight the Bad Ones
  • Use the Power of Nature for Better Health
  • Unplug from Online for Better Health
  • Weight Loss Through Narrowing Your Eating Window
  • Mammography and Dense Breast Tissue
  • Medication-Assisted Treatment for Addiction Disorder
  • Smoker or Former Smoker? Lung Cancer Screening is Recommended for You
  • Be Safe When Using Over the Counter Medications
  • Screenings for Colon Cancer
  • Thyroid Health Essential to Metabolism
  • Go for Nutrition that is Heart Healthy
  • High Blood Pressure and Ways to Lower It
  • Hospitalists: Your Around the Clock Caregiver
  • Weight Loss Surgery Has Lasting Impact
  • Can you Find Joy in the Holidays When Sick?
  • Coping with Holiday Depression
  • When Quitting Smoking You May Need to Try and Try Again
  • Vaginal Birth after C-Section
  • New Tool to Assess Breast Cancer Risk
  • Migraines: How to Treat Them
  • Vestibular Care: It's All in Your Ears
  • Prepare for a Healthy Trip Abroad
  • New Moms Encouraged to Breast Feed
  • Language Diversity Important to Healthcare
  • Latest Advances in Joint Replacement
  • Vaping and Nicotine Addiction
  • Urgent Care or Emergency Department
  • Free Medicare Wellness Visit
  • Rehabilitation from Stroke Onset
  • Life Threatening Stroke Can be Prevented
  • Mammography and MRI for Women with High Risk of Breast Cancer
  • Breaking the Silence on Kidney Disease
  • Stop Mindless Eating
  • Hospitals Working to Improve Heart Health
  • Your Healthy Gut Bacteria
  • Give Up Smoking in 2018
  • Healthy Resolutions for 2018
  • Healthy Giving for 2017
  • Concussions: Myths and Truths
  • Celebrate a Thankful & Healthy Holiday
  • Don't Die of Embarrassment: Get Screened for Colon Cancer
  • Don't Let the Flu Get You This Season
  • Advanced Cardiac Imaging
  • Chronic Wound Care
  • What is a Hospitalist?
  • Healthy Heart Rhythms
  • Wellness Coaching
  • Men's Health In Crisis
  • Prevent Stroke or Respond FAST
  • Walking to Good Health
  • Healing Through Acupuncture
  • Self Care is Our Future
  • Family Wellness - Play Together Stay Healthy Together
  • Rewriting Your Book of Life
  • Pre-Diabetes: A Wake-Up Call for Better Health
  • Overcoming Crisis With Resiliency
  • Stepping Off the Slippery Slope
  • Sleep & Wellness: Learning to Cherish Your Sleep
  • Kicking the Habit and Ending the Fear
  • High Blood Pressure: One of the Few Things in Life We Can Control
  • Friendship is Powerful Medicine
  • It's Flu Season: Get the Vaccine!
  • The Healing Power of Gratitude
  • Where's the Joy?
  • New Year's Resolutions to Live By
  • Preventing Falls: A Leading Health Risk for the Older Population
  • Staying Healthy in the Office
  • Exercising at Home and Staying Fit in the Winter
  • Cardiac Rehabilitation: Regaining a Healthier and Better Life
  • Nutrition & Exercise: Two Great Gifts for Children
  • A Screening That Has Saved More than a Million Lives
  • How Walking Can Change Your Life
  • Injury-Free Sports & Activities
  • Have a Healthy Summer
  • Head to a Farmers' Market
  • Just Breathe
  • Lyme Disease Facts
  • Mindful Eating
  • Empathy in Healthcare
  • Preparing Your Family for an Emergency
  • Helping Someone to Cope with Opioid Addiction
  • Breast Cancer Awareness: Mammograms Save Lives
  • Antibiotic Resistance
  • Lung Cancer Screening
  • Giving Thanks
  • Healthy Holidays

Reducing the Stigma of Substance Use Disorder

Reducing the stigma of substance use disorders
By Shannon McCarthy

The isolation and fear all of us are experiencing these days is all too familiar to the millions of people struggling with a substance use disorder. The difference is that while we readily empathize with each other about the impact of the current viral pandemic, we tend to stigmatize and isolate sufferers of substance use disorders blaming them for their disease.

Addiction is a chronic, relapsing brain disease characterized by compulsive drug-seeking and use, despite the harmful consequences. Addiction changes the structure and functionality of the brain. While it’s true that many of those with substance use disorder may have made the initial decision to experiment with drugs or alcohol, it is still a disease and should be treated as such. No one is born wanting a life of turmoil.

The stigma that we as a society attach to alcohol and other drug addictions can severely isolate individuals and families. It actually encourages people to deny a fatal illness and ignore its symptoms. It keeps desperately ill people from seeking help.

In other words, this stigma keeps the sick- sick. It has us believe that people with addictions are somehow inherently bad. It focuses only on the mistakes people may have made, dismissing them as selfish, dishonest, manipulative and weak-willed. It ignores the strengths and resiliencies that live in even the most troubled human being. This kind of negative focus only feeds those harmful behaviors and destroys their ability to believe they will ever get well.

Stopping the stigma of substance use disorder begins with how we talk about it. Even those of us in the field of treating this disease realized we needed to change our clinical language.  We now use and encourage everyone else to use what is called person-first language, which emphasizes the person instead of the disease. Every patient is “a person with a substance use disorder,” and not an “addict” or an “alcoholic” or a “drug abuser.”  In the everyday world, those latter terms often are further and terribly translated into demeaning words like “junkie” or “drunk.” 

When a person is labeled by their illness they are seen as part of a stereotyped group and not as an individual. This stigma becomes a mark of shame or disgrace that sets a person apart. By giving a human face to this disease, rather than cruel caricatures, we begin to recognize the courage it takes to make the transition into recovery. Patients in recovery are “normal”, everyday people who live, love, work, play pay taxes and vote, sharing the same hopes and dreams as everyone else.

The lesson here is that we need to view substance use disorder addiction as we would any other disease. We must look for and care for the human within – the child, the sibling, the parent, the friend. It’s about treating people in a way that rescues them from needless isolation and fear. We all know that feeling these days, and we should take it to heart as the world eventually emerges from this current challenge.

Shannon McCarthy, MSW, LADC I, LCSW is the Department Director of Behavioral Science and Substance Use Disorders at Berkshire Medical Center.

 

 

 

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