Substance Abuse | Addiction – how it happens, what it does, who it effects, how to stop it – the topics and impacts related to substance abuse are endless. One of the key reasons for creating BreakingTheCycles.com was to “Change the Conversations” on the many, many issues surrounding substance abuse and addiction. Sharing research, articles by experts and the personal stories of guest authors to Change the Conversations and end the stigma, misinformation and shame has been the objective of BreakingTheCycles.com since its founding in 2008.
To that end, we’ve all heard the expression, “a picture speaks a thousand words.” And we all know it’s true! Lisa Frederiksen created the following Images 4 Change to add to this “Changing the Conversations” effort. Please scroll through and pass them along, and if you have one you’d like to share, let us know.
Speaks to the issue of Secondhand Drinking, a term to describe the impacts on others of a person’s drinking behaviors – the drunken arguments; physical fights; verbal, physical or emotional abuse; driving while impaired; engaging in risky sexual behaviors; blackouts… CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE and SHARE
Speaks to the issue of Secondhand Drinking, a term to describe the impacts on others of a person’s drinking behaviors – the drunken arguments; physical fights; verbal, physical or emotional abuse; driving while impaired; engaging in risky sexual behaviors; blackouts… CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE and SHARE
This link takes you to one more image created around the issue of Secondhand Drinking [the wordpress page, itself, can only handle so many images].
Speaks to the issue of addiction (whether its to drugs or alcohol) as a developmental brain disease, not a choice. CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE and SHARE
Speaks to the fact that the National Institutes of Health considers addiction to be a disease like other diseases. By its simplest definition, a disease is something that changes cells in a negative way. Addiction changes cells in the brain. CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE and SHARE
Speaks to the fact that treating addiction means healing the brain and preventing addiction means helping the family. Addiction is a family disease. It effects everyone, thus helping all members of the family can help them individually, help the addict/aloholic in recovery, and prevent the children, especially, from developing the disease. CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE and SHARE
Speaks to the fact that part of treating and preventing addiction will require policy changes, such as medical coverage that truly recognizes treating the brain takes longer than 28 days (think of how long we allow coverage to treat a broken leg or cancer), medical coverage to help family members struggling with a loved one’s brain disease, policy changes that clearly state addiction is a brain disease, that mental illness is a brain disease and that full recovery from both is entirely possible. A person in recovery is no different than a person in remission from cancer or a person managing their diabetes. We need policy changes that address non-violent, drug-related crimes by treating the addiction and its underlying causes in order to prevent recidivism. We must add addiction / brain health to our policy initiatives. Estimates are that it affects more than one-half the population (either personally or through a loved one’s addiction) and costs over one-half trillion dollars annually. See related post, http://www.breakingthecycles.com/blog/2012/09/03/addiction-impacts-millions-costs-billions/ CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE and SHARE