Heroes in Recovery Bags and Burgers Event
My fellow Heroes advocate Jordan Young and I recently hosted a local event called Bags and Burgers. It was a Corn Hole Tournament (boards and beanbags) that we set up at a local picnic area. We had an amazing turnout of over 40 people. The day was filled with lots of food and lots of outdoor fun. This was our second local event, and the turnout doubled from our first!
What I’d like to talk about is not the event itself but an interesting interaction that happened there. Once everyone had arrived, Jordan and I introduced ourselves and gave a quick presentation on Heroes in Recovery.
In my part of the presentation, I made the following remark: “Through Heroes in Recovery, we hope to end the stigma of addiction and help spread the word that addiction is not a bad thing.” Afterwards, one of my colleagues and friends came up to me to talk about the presentation.
After telling me that I had done a good job, he joked that there was one sentence that stuck out in his memory—the sentence above. I say he joked because he thought that what I said was a mistake. He said, “Right, that’s like saying: My son is addicted to drugs but it’s not a bad thing, it’s OK.” He continued, “I think what you meant to say is, ‘End the stigma of recovery.’”
At the time, I laughed with him thinking that perhaps I had made a mistake. After some reflection, I realized that I had not, in fact, misspoken. That was exactly what I meant. And that is exactly what the goal of Heroes in Recovery is, to end the stigma of addiction.
The stigma of addiction is what holds back a large percentage of those struggling with addiction from reaching out for help. It is the fear that they will be judged by their family, friends, or co-workers that scares people from admitting that they may have a problem. Think about it this way: What if the same stigma that is attached to addiction was attached to lung cancer? People would be embarrassed to admit they have lung cancer and wait to get treatment until it’s too late. The same thing happens today with addiction; sometimes things get so bad by the time someone reaches out that it’s too late.
Understand this—nobody ever woke up and decided to become a drug addict or alcoholic. Giving them the benefit of tolerance does not necessarily take away the accountability for their past actions or their responsibility to do something about their problem. What it gives them is the ability to speak up about one of the most painful areas of their life.
So the next time you hear about someone with an addiction problem, perhaps take a minute to grant them the same patience, tolerance, and pity you would grant to a sick friend.