Addiction Advocacy

What do an astronaut, actor, senator, game show host, and Cy Young award winning baseball player have in common?

In 1799, in Native America, The Handsome Lake Movement was formed as a support program for people struggling with Substance Use Disorder. In the 1950’s the American Medical Association (AMA) assigned a list of symptomology to Substance Use Disorder.

In 1976, in an effort to dispel the myths people held about only poor or unsuccessful people being impacted by addiction, 50 influential people in recovery came together in Washington, D.C. to share about recovery. This event was called, Operation Understanding.  Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, Actor Dick Van Dyke, Senator Harold Hughes, To Tell the Truth host Gary Moore, and Cy Young Award winning baseball player Don Newcombe were just a few of the people in recovery who shared their own journey to make way for others to do the same.

Today 23.5 million Americans live in recovery yet people struggling with addiction are often shamed when seeking help. The reason? Society has viewed Substance Use Disorder as a moral failing, a weakness. Time and time again research has shown that Substance Use Disorder is not a moral issue, rather, a condition needing to be treated just as any other.

We have the proof we need to understand addiction as a treatable condition.

Even the Surgeon General agrees. In November 2016, the Surgeon General released the first report on Alcohol, Drugs, and Health. The findings in the report echo information the recovery community has long believed and experienced.

To note only some of the findings: "Addiction is a chronic brain disease and has the potential for recurrence and recovery; The addiction progress involves a three-stage cycle that becomes more severe when continued; Brain functioning as the addiction cycle progresses reduces the person’s ability to control use showing disruptions in three areas of the brain: the basal ganglia, extended amygdala, and the prefrontal cortex. Those disruptions: increase desire for substance; reduce pleasure/reward experience and increase brain stress system; reduce function in the executive control system. Changes in the brain last long after substance use stops; and Adolescence is a critical period for being “at risk” for use and addiction and all addictive drugs have especially harmful effects."