All Together Now

In 2018 for the first time in decades, death from drug overdoses declined by just over 5%. That is the first time that has happened since 1990. While many states showed significant decline some showed a continued increase. Missouri and Rhode Island showed the largest increase at over 16% each.

In the past 3 decades, drug overdoses have killed approximately 870,000 people. Since the first wave of the opioid epidemic began in the 1990s, the epidemic has expanded to include synthetic, illicit drugs, including heroin and fentanyl. As new CDC data and other studies offer updates on the epidemic, here are 5 things to know.

The article “5 Updates on Trends in Drug Overdose Deaths in the United States” highlights 5 very informative trends. The graph below demonstrates why this is an epidemic:

One of the things that still looms very large in the timeline of my life was how our nation, mostly driven by young people changed the course of decades of policy, the loss of precious life (58,000 plus mostly young people), and forced what world leaders could not do for decades, the ending of the Vietnam War. The documentary series “The Vietnam War” by Ken Burns is a very enlightening film regarding all sides of the debate. United States Military casualties were 58,220 as a result of decades of involvement in the Vietnam War. In response to it citizens took to the streets, some losing their own lives for the cause and changed history. It always bothers me when I realize that right now more Americans are dying in the battle over addiction every year for the past several years than in the entire Vietnam War. Almost 1 million Americans lost in 19 years. The current accepted duration for the Vietnam War is November 1, 1955 and lasted until April 30, 1975, is 19 years 180 days. One million Americans!

What are the implications of that? How should we, the people, respond, I am not sure, but I do know that this problem is affecting ALL of us. There are very few, if any, people left whose lives are not being impacted by the addiction of someone they love. The solution will require all of us!

No matter who you are you fit into one of the three categories below:

• Addiction isn’t an issue for me so how can I support those I love and keep it that way.
• I don’t know if addiction is an issue for the people I love, how can I identify it?
• It is an issue for me or someone I love, how can I get help?

Over the next three weeks we will be addressing these thoughts, but what is important is for all of us to remember we can all be a part of the solution.

Things everyone of us can do:

A ) As a parent, or someone who cares it is important to continue to have a conversation that encourages and supports continued healthy choices and behavior. This simple guide to positive communication can help (not all elements apply in each circumstance).

1 Be brief

2 Be Positive

3 Refer to specific behavior/actions (these are positive behaviors and actions too)

4 Label your feelings (not always applicable)

5 Offer an understanding statement (when it makes sense)

6 Accept partial responsibility (not always applicable)

7 Offer help

Simply choose the elements that fit your need in talking to your loved one, the more that apply the better.

B ) Each of us can and should be aware of “The Marks of Addiction” in Individuals so we can identify that there might be an issue:

“The Marks of Addiction”:

1 Tolerance – does a person need increasingly more amounts of the substance to be satisfied

2 Withdrawal – do they experience withdrawal symptoms when not using the drug

3 Craving – do they have physical and psychological cravings

4 Ambivalence – do they constantly express their desire to quit and yet can’t

5 Re-Lapse under ambivalence – have they gone long periods of time not using the substance and yet started up again.

6 Obsession – is the agenda of their day driven by the need for the substance

7 Denial – are they continually deceiving others to hide their drug use. Are they deceiving themselves?

The further down the list we can assign these characteristics to our addicted loved one the more extreme their addiction. When I think of what our daughter Lauren faced, all of these applied as she was facing a major addiction. See “Three Ways We Can Balance Helping Our Addicted Loved One” for more about this.

C ) We can all find resources and information to help someone we love who is in addiction. A good place to start is “SAMHSA” which stands for Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Another is called “DMHAS” Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, Connecticut State’s portal of resources. Your state has a similar department although it may be under a different name

Two additional things we can all do:

• Clean out our medicine cabinet. A study of those that began abusing opiods in the 2000’s revealed that over 75% started on prescription drugs. Many of those were young people that found them in the cabinets of family members. Look through your medicine cabinets and remove any “old” medications from the past. Most towns have local drop boxes for expired or unused drugs. Check with your local police department to find one in your community.
• Get involved in a local LPC. Local Prevention Counsels are municipal groups that focus on addressing the needs of their community to improve the safety and well-being of their constituents. Their goal is to increase public awareness of Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug (ATOD) prevention and to stimulate the development and implementation of local prevention activities, with a primary focus on youth. They often have activities or programs that you can help out at. Monthly meetings where you can express and share your ideas, and resource’s that may be helpful to you. Check out your town or cities website and chances are your community has an LPC.

What is important to understand is the problem of addiction is huge, and it will take ALL of us to make a difference.

For the rest of January each weeks post will focus on one of the three areas mentioned above.

This weeks featured image is by Brooke Shaden, In the tweet that accompanied it Brooke wrote “Which are you, Bound – Breaking Free – Rid of What Holds You Back”.