Is there anyone in your life that suffers from addiction? There are so many different ways a person can get addicted to substances. In this day and age, a person might face stigma and receive hate as a result.
Stop the Stigma Day at Malden Public Schools is held annually on March 9th. Stigma can be defined as having negative feelings and giving cruel opinions against groups of people. Negative attitudes and judgment toward substance abuse and disorders are prevalent in the world today.
It is important to know that when someone is experiencing stigma, it can worsen the disorder they have and cause them to hide it from people. They can end up avoiding looking for treatment because they feel guilty and shameful, which is why Stop the Stigma Day was first created.
“It means bringing the community together to raise awareness and removing the stigma around addiction. Thanks to Malden Overcoming Addiction, this day plus all the other events they work on throughout the year have helped us battle the other pandemic known as substance use disorder,” stated Mayor Gary Christenson.
He continued on by saying that if he met anyone who suffered from addiction, the first thing he would try to do is to “get them resources. One resource is putting them in touch with Malden Overcoming Addiction who in turn [with] their expertise and determination [will] get them the appropriate services.”
If you are a victim of stigmatized substance abuse, the best option is to get help as soon as possible because the faster you get help, the better the outcome will be. According to HaveThatTalk on YouTube, there are four steps that will help stop the stigma. For the people who do not suffer from these issues, try and follow these steps to not hurt others.
1) Think about how you feel about addictions and mental illness: are you biased and do you judge people?
2) Be careful with the words you are using and avoid using words that can hurt someone, try to avoid derogatory language.
3) Learn more about mental illnesses and learn what people can be going through with certain disorders that they have. This can show why they act the way they do.
4) Explore friendships with people with disorders or mental illnesses. You should not just think, “Oh they have an issue they are not going to be good friends” but you will be surprised at how many good people there are.
Christenson’s view on reducing stigma is to “continue to dedicate as many city resources as we can. For example, we now have a dedicated resource in Paul Hammersley working full-time for the city on this issue and there are also two part-time recovery coaches employed by our Health Department.”
For people who are being targeted, the Mayor of Malden wants you to know, “Don’t listen to it! There is hope, there are resources and you are important to our community.” And for the ones doing the targeting, “We can all do a better job of decreasing stigma around drug addiction. We need to remember that it can happen to anyone in our circle of friends, family and acquaintances so we need to remain compassionate and kind.”
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