What To Know About Recovery From SUD

Recovery from SUD must be a community effort. It’s the community that has the problem and needs to address it, even if some are not directly affected by it. It’s not the community against those with substance use problems.

 

SUD is a public health issue that responds to treatment and support.  SUD is not a criminal justice issue. Reacting to SUD with a purely criminal justice response marginalizes those with problems. Substance Use Disorders call for treatment and support, not incarceration.

 

Our Community Walk For Recovery is an effort to open opportunities up to those in recovery, and to discuss how we, as a society, can be part of the recovery solution. The Community Walk For Recovery is a fundraiser to support organizations in the recovery community on the front lines. It is our opportunity to talk openly of the role communities must play to help people in recovery successfully return to mainstream society.

 

 

People affected by SUD are like us: lawyers, doctors, school teachers, housewives, our friends, our friends’ children, people who may not show their addictions at work or in public. We want them to know that their stories matter, and that there are ways to help them get into recovery.

 

 

‘It doesn’t happen to us’ – wrong! It can happen to anybody, regardless of where you live and what you do. Stories of successful people in recovery. It does happen, and people do get out of it.

 

SUD is a disease of the mind, body and soul that creates compulsive behavior that circumvents our natural impulses for survival. We should celebrate those working to recover, encourage them as they do their hard work, and offer helping hands to get them back on the path to success.

 

SUD is not a choice – it is not a moral failing, and it doesn’t happen to other people: it happens to us. Addiction is a brain disease. Chemical addiction substances change the brain. It is a misperception that addicts make a deliberate choice to live that life.

 

Law enforcement knows better than most that the criminal justice system is inadequate to help. Almost 90% of substance use disorders, and 80% of prison population, are driven by mental health issues. There is a lack of services, lack of support for help for this population. We live in a stressful time – society can’t take care of everybody, but we must if we are to grow our way out of our addiction crises.

 

For more info: contact MRC president Pegg Monahan (Pegg@Accelara.com, 603-852-8166), Event Chair Harry Wolhandler (Harry@Accelara.com, 603-852-8166), or the Rotarian who contacted you.