Nice People Use Drugs: Stigma Discussion
This is both a follow-up for my discussion on Addiction and Stigma that happened on Feb 15/18 at 1pm EST and as a way of reaching out to the greater community to discuss the topic of stigma and addictions. Here's some homework for ya'll. Read this article, reflect and discuss 
https://dancesafe.org/nice-people-use-drugs/
Some prompting questions:
1. What sort of stigmas and stereotypes have you personally faced and/or seen others face as a person who uses drugs and/or person with an addiction? How have you coped with the challenges caused by these?
2. How do you feel about the statement "those who develop a problematic relationship with a substance are not inherently bad people"?
3. How can we as a community work to be "humanizing, rather than stigmatizing"?
@VinylFly This is the one you want to reply to :)
Good questions, I'll read the article later to see how it matches up with my feelings and impressions that I will base the answers for the questions on.
1. What sort of stigmas and stereotypes have you personally faced and/or seen others face as a person who uses drugs and/or person with an addiction? How have you coped with the challenges caused by these?
I think that biggest stigma is the idea that once you are an addict, you are an addict for life, and therefore must be labeled first and foremost as an addict for the rest of your life.
I personally haven't had too much of this as my thing generally keeps me away from people. I've had a little stress about if from significant others, not that much though. To them my over-reliance on the internet kept me out of all sorts of other trouble, so they didn't mind too much.
Others though? I've seen them passed over for jobs, lose promotions, had trouble with relationships because of their perceived perpetual recovery status.
2. How do you feel about the statement "those who develop a problematic relationship with a substance are not inherently bad people"?
I don't see people with a problem. I just see people.
3. How can we as a community work to be "humanizing, rather than stigmatizing"?
Stop labelling them?
2Reply
@DaveMcGrath You are so right about the once an addict, always one. It seems that one never really sheds that label after "coming out" as having an addiction. It's rather sad because I feel like that prevents many people who are struggling in silence from reaching out for help.
Awwe...I love how you said that you see the person and not the problem. That's a really great way of breaking down the stigma that comes along with having an addiction.
1.Personally I had lost a few friends i lived with, over my drug of choice for coping with a previous trauma. We all did drugs in the house, but my drug was the "worst". (In thier opinion) I feel that the most difficult stigma I had to battle was being labeled a "LIAR". Which for me I was nothing but brutally honest. Never lied about being high! Or anything for that matter. They allowed this believe "liar" to root deeper into their own fears. With this accusation that my trauma was made up so I could continue my choice of drug. Which was painful to hear from friends 10+ yrs. I struggled really bad trying to understand why they thought and said this. Plus coping with trauma. A couple months ago I found healing from these labels that were forced on me from a Hindu saying;. "Your preception of me is a reflection of you; but my reaction to you is an awareness of me." I'd rather focus now on evolving my own self love.
2. I don't believe their are "bad people". I believe theirs hurt people attempting to do what's best for themselves in their current situations.
3. I feel as a community we may evolve to "humanizing" one another when we can understand the Hindu saying. I ask this myself often- Is what I'm projecting out to the other a reflection of my own bullshit or is it an example of my own awareness that radiates love? I strongly believe now the only way we can heal others is by healing ourselves first. By doing this we spark inspiration in others.
@Djs3
So true, by healing ourselves, we show others it is possible. Perhaps their journey will be different, but the mere fact that somehow we made it, serves as inspiration and an example to them.
@Djs3 Thank you so much for sharing part of your story. You have so many great things to say and are very insightful. I'm so sorry that you have lost friends over the stigma that comes along with having an addiction. I too have had to deal with being labeled as a "liar" and still do over 2 and a half years down the road or recovery. It seems like there's a certain lack of trust that never goes away once you've dealt with an addiction. It's sad because addictions really aren't our fault. As you said, they are a way of coping with trauma for many, including yourself. No one deserves to be stigmatized for having had to endure traumatic experiences.
I love the quote that you shared and am proud of you for taking the time to focus on loving yourself. It's so important and empowering to learn to love ourselves in order to heal and become more resilient. You have really done a great job of turning around something negative into a humbling experience. Good on ya for being positive, productive, and a great role-model for others. Keep up the great work and keep on radiating loving energy <3
Hello :)
Personally I'd say this :
1) Smart people use pipes, anorectics smoke, you can develop addiction to methamphetamine/MDMA/DMT/or any other stimulative or psychedelic substance (this is rather false than stereotype as addiction means physical addiction to substances like opiates and alcohol - quitting cold turkey withou these substances can literally kill you and/or severely damage your brain through excitative neurotoxocity) - the truth is you cannot get (physical) addiction to stimulative or psychedelic substances but you can develop dependency. Another one is that MDMA is used ONLY at rave parties - not true - same goes for LSD, DMT (seriously - who would take DMT on rave party?) etc.
2) They usually are not. They just chose bad way to cope with their problems (like breakup, depression and/or anxiety). That doesn't mean they are bad people. They would be only "bad" if they would push others to drugs (like 420blazeit fanatics, those who believe DMT is "The Spirit Molecule" etc. who literarilly force others to do drugs)
3) We should mostly try to in our lives to focus on whether the person chooses to continue their habit (for example most smokers smoke even when they 'do not want' to smoke - they just cannot overcome their dependency) and what the person does with their habit. We also should promote harm reduction (f.ex. e-cigarrettes, centers where addicts can get clean syringes and/or most "clean" substance they seek or any other REAL harm reduction method that has proven efficacy, lower risk and is available) The problem isn't really stigmatization or humanization. To be honest "humanization" is looking like gloryfication to me. The problem is that everywhere you can hear about drugs, drugs and once more drugs. (with a frosting of sex) That's the problem. We shouldn't ignore addicts but we should lower the frequency with what we discuss these topics as that discussion can only 'push' others to try it themselves.
@BigJohn Thanks for sharing. You are a well-educated and insightful individual :)
There are indeed many misconceptions about different types of drugs. Each one has its own set of effects, risks, dependency potential, and withdrawal concerns to be aware of. Here are a couple of resources with specific safety information on each drug class Dancesafe (go to the drug info tab at the top left-hand corner), Erowid.
Psychedelics and stimulants such as MDMA (ecstacy or "molly") are ones that don't seem to have a lot of public awareness and as you said, are often misunderstood and the subject of stereotyping. There's a film that's currently in production that's going to present an in-depth exploration of MDMA, the myths surrounding it and the culture associated with it. Something you might be interested in following MDMA: The Movie. LSD (acid) and DMT are certainly something you wouldn't want to take at a party or rave due to the high potential of being overwhelmed by your environment and having a challenging experience (bad trip).
I love how you brought up the point about addition vs. dependency. This is quite a complex and multi-faceted concept which I think that we as a society have yet to have a full grasp on but there's lots of interesting research presently taking place and our knowledge is expanding by the minute :)
Love your points about separating the not so good coping mechanisms from the person themselves and also about not pushing drugs and personal choices on others
Also...yaaaay for harm reduction and focusing on what a person does with their habit. I think by doing that, we can better understand what purpose a person's addiction has in their lives and how we can help them to find healthier, less harmful coping mechanisms.
There is a little side-note I'd like to bring up. I don't mean to offend here, but I'd like to point out that while alcohol withdrawal can be dangerous and can cause brain damage or possible dealth, opioid withdrawal is often uncomfortable but rarely ever life-threatening.
@VinylFly
Thanks for reply :)
Also sorry for my late one, I myself had quite challenging period now.
Mostly I agree, there is something points I'd like to make clearer
Dependency vs addiction is quite easy concept to understand. It just require separating addiction from craving etc.
From neuropsychiatrical view (the view of psychiatry I advocate the most - against psychodynamical view which you can say I built hate for) dependency is just influence of dopaminogeric, serotoninogeric, noradrenogeric, adrenogeric and also GABA-eric (with multiple others I'd abstain to name as their function is not so well documented and understood - like glutamate or substance P) which - when disrupted - cannot result to direct death (I know that "serotonine syndrome" can result to death but that is indirect cause), developing dependency for compounds altering these (MDMA,DMT, 5-MeO- DMT, LSD,9-delta-THC etc.) only makes you crave them and to have psychological withdrawal symptoms (f.ex. depression, anxiety, agressivity/hostility etc.) - short said - withdrawal can be extremely unpleasant and leave very hard stains on personality but never can kill person directly.
Addiction (or how some like to call it "physical addiction" ) on other hand is caused by fundamental change to person's brain in which absentece of required substance can lead to direct death, addiction by itself, NOT accomanied by dependency is without craving if there is lack of association good feeling = drugs (this association is one of the main building blocks of dependency) and other "dependency withdrawal symtpoms"
As you pointed in that tiny writing - opioid withdrawal rarely leads to death. And that is true as opiods physically disrupt pretty "needless" chemicals for basic survival but it can in fact lead to death through mentioned neurotoxicity (which equals to neurodegeneration in this case), altho deaths are rare, they can happen because opiod system regulates brain activity (through blocking nociceptive signals from peripheral nervous system) and if those signals are not blocked they can lead to death of neurons (excitative neurotoxicity) - if too many neuronos die, the person dies as direct cause because there is not enough neurons to keep person alive (-opiates does not only work in brain but also in spinal chord which is essential for being alive)
Awe wow, thank you guys for participating and for all your insightful responses. What a lovely community we have. You all warm my heart so much