Women are now drinking almost as much alcohol as men, shifting a consumption trend that has persisted for at least a century, according to a new study. Historically, men have been up to twice as likely to drink as women. What’s more, men have been more than three times as likely to experience alcohol-related problems,…
What’s in a word? Quite a bit, especially if you’re a person in recovery from an addiction to alcohol or other drugs. A person labeled as a “junkie” may have a harder time maintaining recovery when they feel like they’ve been publicly branded by their fellow community members. Mental Health America, a nonprofit focused on…
How do you turn stigma into law? PA House Representative Bryan Barbin seems to have hit on the solution with three proposed bills that would redirect money from the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement to what he believes are measures to reduce opioid abuse.
Alcohol, Tobacco, Other Drug and Gambling (ATODG) Prevention; this is what we do at Compass Mark. Sounds easy, right? Just stop something from happening….we all know how to do that. Or do we? The truth is, if ATODG prevention was easy, we wouldn’t have ATODG epidemics. Prevention is counterintuitive to the way we think. You…
Scorn. Blame. Rejection. People in recovery from substance abuse disorders are subjected to the stigma that comes with their experiences. That isolation–from people and services–makes it harder for a person to maintain long-term recovery. So how can the Lancaster community empower those in recovery to stay in recovery?
Americans are significantly more likely to have negative attitudes toward drug-addicted people than those with mental health conditions, according to a study from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The researchers found:
“My brother George P. Gauthier lost his battle with addiction 5/28/15. He was 44 years old. He was so intelligent and creative and funny. He struggled with alcohol from the time he was in his early 20’s…” So begins an obituary written by Gauthier’s sister. It’s one example of a recent trend to be open in…
“People are not comfortable saying publicly ‘I survived.” At least they’re not when it comes to addiction, according to Amy Sechrist, certified prevention specialist at Compass Mark and member of the Lancaster County Recovery Alliance (LCRA). The LCRA is launching efforts to remove that stigma and transform how our community helps addicted people maintain long-term…