Education
How addiction
happens.
Start here. One video, made by a mother who lost her son to substance use, for families trying to understand what they are looking at.
Video plays from YouTube. Nothing loads from YouTube until you press play.
- Addiction is not a character flaw
- It changes how the brain values reward, risk and relief. Understanding the mechanism is what makes it possible to respond instead of blame.
- Stigma is the reason people wait
- Most families lose time to shame before they lose it to the illness. Naming it plainly is the first intervention.
- Families need scripts, not slogans
- What to say, who to call, what to expect. That is the gap this material is built to close.
Breaking the stigma
The words do the work
Changing how a family, a classroom or a staff room talks about mental illness and addiction is the cheapest intervention available. Here is where to start.
| Instead of | Say | Because |
|---|---|---|
| Addict, junkie, alcoholic | A person with a substance use disorder | Puts the person before the illness, the way we already do with every other diagnosis. |
| Clean, dirty | In recovery, or testing positive | Nobody is dirty. Clinical language keeps shame out of the conversation. |
| Committed suicide | Died by suicide | Removes the implication of a crime and reduces the risk of contagion. |
| She's crazy, he's bipolar | She lives with a mental illness, he has bipolar disorder | A diagnosis is something a person has, not something a person is. |
More lessons are in development, including material built for classrooms and parent nights. Miriam covers this ground live as well.
If this raised something for you
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Indiana support
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For families and young people
Support built specifically for the people around someone who is struggling.