• Home
  • Museum History
  • Blog
  • Free Scholarly Articles
  • Dissertations
  • Historical Pioneers
  • Rising Stars
  • Thurston Smith Advocacy Award
  • Books
  • Podcasts
  • Free Workbooks
  • Leadership Interviews
  • Hall of Fame
    • Roland Williams
    • Delbert Boone
    • Marc Fomby, CEO
    • Alfred Coach Powell
    • Cherie Hunter
    • Micheal Johnson, MSW
    • Lonetta Albright
    • Fred Dyer
    • David Whiters
    • Carl Hart
    • Andrea Barthwell
    • Carl Bell
    • Benny Primm
    • Lydia Muyingo
    • Monica Webb Hooper
    • Ijeoma Opara
    • Renee Cunningham-Williams
    • H. Westley Clark
    • Michael V. Stanton
    • Renee M. Johnson
    • William A. Cloud
    • Allecia Reid
  • Dr. Carl Bell
  • Dr. Fred Dyer
  • Adolescent Corner
  • Educational Videos
  • History of A.A.
  • Movies
  • Songs
  • Celebrities In Recovery
  • Gone Too Soon!
  • DREAMS CUT SHORT
  • Story of the Month
  • Webinars
  • Becoming a trainer
  • Bibliography
  • Biographies, Autobiographies and Memoirs
  • Black Temperance Movement
  • Non-African American Contributors
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contact Us
Menu

Online Museum of African American Addictions, Treatment and Recovery

Street Address
City, State, Zip
Phone Number

Your Custom Text Here

Online Museum of African American Addictions, Treatment and Recovery

  • Home
  • Museum History
  • Blog
  • Free Scholarly Articles
  • Dissertations
  • Historical Pioneers
  • Rising Stars
  • Thurston Smith Advocacy Award
  • Books
  • Podcasts
  • Free Workbooks
  • Leadership Interviews
  • Hall of Fame
  • Trainers
    • Roland Williams
    • Delbert Boone
    • Marc Fomby, CEO
    • Alfred Coach Powell
    • Cherie Hunter
    • Micheal Johnson, MSW
    • Lonetta Albright
    • Fred Dyer
    • David Whiters
  • Scientists
    • Carl Hart
    • Andrea Barthwell
    • Carl Bell
    • Benny Primm
    • Lydia Muyingo
    • Monica Webb Hooper
    • Ijeoma Opara
    • Renee Cunningham-Williams
    • H. Westley Clark
    • Michael V. Stanton
    • Renee M. Johnson
    • William A. Cloud
    • Allecia Reid
  • Dr. Carl Bell
  • Dr. Fred Dyer
  • Adolescent Corner
  • Educational Videos
  • History of A.A.
  • Movies
  • Songs
  • Celebrities In Recovery
  • Gone Too Soon!
  • DREAMS CUT SHORT
  • Story of the Month
  • Webinars
  • Becoming a trainer
  • Bibliography
  • Biographies, Autobiographies and Memoirs
  • Black Temperance Movement
  • Non-African American Contributors
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contact Us

Amid the opioid epidemic, white means victim, black means addict

May 17, 2018 Mark Sanders
Amid the opioid epidemic.jpg

America’s social hierarchies rule everything – even the opioid epidemic. You don’t have to dig deep into the recovery process to find the hypocrisy to people of color

My cursor is hovering over the “unfriend” button, but I haven’t clicked it.

Today, my relationship-severing finger is poised to get rid of Matt. Matt is a friend with whom I spent a lot of time about six years ago. We were close in rehab, but I haven’t seen him since. I entered Greenbriar treatment center in Washington, Pennsylvania, just a few days after he’d arrived, and he showed me the ropes. For the next few weeks, we were virtually inseparable.

Rehab can be a frightening place when you first arrive. With any luck, you’ve already had some sort of “come to Jesus” moment with yourself and you’ve realized that you need to be there or else you’re going to die. I had had no such moment and was fully convinced that this was all a big mistake. Once I got through the door into the facility, I heard it lock electronically with a loud buzz and a finality that shook my bones. I immediately regretted it. There is no lonelier feeling on this Earth than sitting there, abandoned and broken. You’ve burned all your bridges on the outside and your life feels as though it’s half a world away. This is the moment when you really need a guy like Matt to walk up to you, thrust out his hand and say: “Hi! I’m Matt! What’s your name?”

Over the next few weeks, he and I attended group therapy sessions together and stayed up late talking about our problems, our addictions and our families. We ugly-cried in front of each other as we shared our darkest secrets, what we had done for drugs and how deeply unhappy we were. Matt is a man who, in many ways, helped me to take my recovery seriously in rehab and, in the first few weeks after my release, he helped me to remain sober on the outside.

Click here to continue reading this post.

Source: The Guardian

← The Royal Wedding: Racism, Poverty and Addiction in AmericaThe Opioid Crisis is Surging in Black Urban Communities →

POWERED BY SQUARESPACE