"Knowledge can only lead to love and love to service."
I often get upset about the stigma associated with addiction. I was reading something on Mother Teresa where she said that rich people aren't indifferent to the poor they very often don't know who they are. She went on to say that when they don't know them by name they remain untouched by their lack of shelter, food, and painful struggles. "And where there is no knowledge, there is no love."
Maybe that sums it up for the stigma of addiction. Perhaps that will help me to feel less anger and more compassion towards others. The question is, how to spread the knowledge???
I often get upset about the stigma associated with addiction. I was reading something on Mother Teresa where she said that rich people aren't indifferent to the poor they very often don't know who they are. She went on to say that when they don't know them by name they remain untouched by their lack of shelter, food, and painful struggles. "And where there is no knowledge, there is no love."
Maybe that sums it up for the stigma of addiction. Perhaps that will help me to feel less anger and more compassion towards others. The question is, how to spread the knowledge???
3 comments:
I could never go on Intervention or Anderson Cooper or any of that. I just can't be that public. At the same time that is the only way to work against the stigma.
To me it's a conundrum.
I totally agree with exactly what Lou's saying ! I even feel bad about the fact that I'm not always willing to be totally open with everyone about my son's addiction. It's partly like I feel if I were a more "developed" person, without being self conscious about it,....then I'd always be totally open about it. But we parents of addicts that know the real facts of living with addiction & how it came to be(IF we can figure that out) are really the ones needed to educate others. IF people saw enough of us, heard from enough of us, that loved our kids, have stable families, aren't addicts ourselves,... then, maybe people really could see addicts as real people needing help,.. not just some low life druggie. I also am not always open w/ everyone out of concern for my son's privacy, not just my own. As Lou said,... It is a conundrum.
I used to feel that way but since my daughter died (I feel)in part due to the stigmatization and denial of her alcoholism by my family, I would do everything...and I mean everything to bring attention to her addiction. If I had to go on the Playboy Channel and dance naked to bring attention to get her help, I would. I want her back.
I blogged about her death from alcoholism before telling anyone in my family. I know I shocked many...LOL.
An addict loses their right to privacy (IMO) when actively using because they destroy lives. It is not MS, Lupus or some other "private" disease. It is an addictive disease that takes down a family.
I realize my opinion is quite strong but my life as well as my son's was shattered by her choice to drink and then die.
I think addicts lose the right to make decisons for themselves until they're well into sobriety so it falls onto the caregivers in their lives, i.e., parents or spouses.
We parents become afraid of our child's addiction and want to protect them but what are we protecting them from?
I remember that feeling. It's a tough place to be.
I don't consider our kids to be "low life druggies or low life alcoholics" but our children with addiction problems and that's how I deal with the public. They need educating and they need us to teach them.
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