Editor’s note: This commentary is by Jesse de la Rosa, who participated in the Governor’s 2014 Community Forum on Opiate Addiction. He previously had a drug-free practice in pain management and directed Vermont Wellness Education. He now lives in Walpole, New Hampshire.
[C]an we clean up the pervasive destruction that accompanies drug abuse? We know enough about addiction to help an addict, but “the problem” is bigger than that: We cannot reach enough addicts, we cannot just fix addiction with treatment, and the stigma has been a great barrier, so we must also rid ourselves of the idea of the addict. We can create more response in our communities, with broader measures of support for recovery; we must, because deep healing is what is needed.
VTDigger organized a public forum in White River Junction on May 18. The panel answered questions sent by readers before the event. It was a discussion that brought to the table plenty of good resources for the time available. I left feeling that they set the stage and not the audience.
In order to cover the subject, I wish this news outlet would deliver an editorial series – it could report on the success stories that exist far and wide. That would do more than explain why this is a national crisis, and would promote more advocacy. I think we need the kind of discourse that calls us to control poverty instead of this control of behavior.
The most pervasive reasons for opiate misuse are the multitude of social ills. If Vermont doubles down on a public health response, there could be a most satisfying victory.
Addiction is a burden that makes the heart so heavy that it can’t find enough determination to pull the person out.
Many turn to drugs because life itself is just too depressing. The real crime is that we neglect their basic needs. The pain of poverty is inhumane. Poverty controls the lives of those reaching for the drugs; pain is big business. We can stop dispensing so many drugs and respond to this by attending to underlying causes, and unmet needs.
What can we do without a drug treatment? We can help those who don’t have the skills to cope. Maybe they work but the demands became too much; they can’t handle the pressures. Others are adrift, already without hope, and don’t have a way to change a terrible choice. All of these people are struggling, and use drugs to fight the pain. Opiate drugs definitely alter your mood; that feels encouraging. Then doctors use drugs to fight the drugs. There is a better treatment for pain: Acupuncture is good for your health, and has no dangerous side effects. It works well on pain because it alters the nervous system, which helps the mind and body be more adaptive.
Bess O’Brien made the remarkable film “The Hungry Heart” – a most revealing title – about lives in a Vermont community trying to succeed in the work of recovery. Addiction is a burden that makes the heart so heavy that it can’t find enough determination to pull the person out. You have to be even more desperate to stop. If we don’t look and see that, we are not likely to feel anything either. Being committed to stopping that suffering comes from feeling… so we can no longer be numb. To support recovery, we have got to make the long-term effort to create more available, transitional living environments that are healthy and constructive.
Now the question becomes whether we are that ambitious. We may have become compassionate, but we are still not taking charge of the task. Indeed, this agenda cites a lot of issues: the excess of pain medications; housing issues that are still delayed, still a reality; expensive incarceration that makes “the crime” worse; harsh sentences, where no justice is provided. Reform of health care is justice. Inventing a formidable workforce is needed to restore self-esteem, and needed to rectify both chronic poverty
and gradual middle-class impoverishment.
Both of these changes will move the culture from destruction to health. It will accomplish inclusion instead of condemnation. Calling someone an addict means they do not belong anymore, they’re discarded. The opiate problem belongs to us – we disregarded the socio-economic basis of health. Anyone who denies that must imagine the health standing of the U.S. is high.
Individuals recovering from traumatic life experiences and debilitating addiction need deep healing, in a close community. Feeling the encouragement of caring helpers is the secret to staying engaged in a program, so we need to hire and train these protectors who can bring encouragement for that healing. Some will ask how we can lower the cost of health care by doing so. Let those who raise that question look at the restored human and social value that will come by getting with the program.
