From Detroit && Beyondš
Come Explore With Meš„¾
Restaurantsš² Road Tripsš
Resortsš° Zooāsš¦ Lakesš
Amusement Parksš” Horse Ridingš“
Road Side Attractionsš£ļø Skatingš¼
Monumentsš½Historyš Graffiti/ArtšØ
&& The Rest Of America šÆ We are a boots on the ground organization making connections with people who are actively consuming substances, and we are attempting to reduce harm one does to themselves. Our strat
egy consists of connection, unconditional love, and access to people with lived experience for non-judgmental connection. We spread the message that none of us thought we would ever be off substances helping other people. We spread joy when we show struggling human being compassion. Things like tough love, we will not be a part of. These individuals already feel horrible, cut off from their families and loved ones, given an ultimatum, and looked down on by judging eyes who wouldn't make it a day in their shoes. Those behaviors cause more trauma to the individual who is suffering, and trauma leads to consuming more substances because these individuals never developed healthy coping skills. People who consume substances repeatedly for an extended period of time can develop substance use disorder. it's a disorder because the brain stops/slows down producing dopamine to the brain, dopamine is what makes people feel joy and happiness. Eventually, consuming substances will replace these individual's basic human instincts with consuming substances. Understanding addiction for a neurological standpoint is the first step to helping someone suffering from addiction. Understanding that recovery is not about being abstinent, or off all mood- and mind-altering substances. Recovery is a process of change, improving health and wellness, striving to reach full potential, making informed and healthy choices, getting a stable and safe place to live, participating in meaningful daily activities, building relationships, handling negative feelings, internal changes such as new knowledge, values, and thinking patterns. Recovery is an individualized process that can very person to person. Recovery isn't a one size fits all, recovery looks different for everyone. MAT (medicated assisted treatment) is the gold standard for opioid use disorder. Due to stigma, I hear all the time from people who have been actively consuming substances for years "I don't want to replace one for the other" and unfortunately these individuals got their information about MAT from a very uneducated source. Family members, loved ones, and spouses can pressure these individuals to get off their MAT medications when these individuals are not ready, and they go against medical advice to make their loved one happy, they get off MAT and relapse and pass away at a rapid rate. MAT has a 90% success rate when opioids have a 97% relapse rate for people who go the abstinent recovery route. Stigma surrounding the gold standard treatment for OUD is making people get off their medication that's treating their illness and keeping them alive. MAT blocks the opioid receptors removing the cravings for the substance, improves mental health, keeps people alive so they can work on the bigger issue because consuming substances is just a symptom of untreated mental illness that we think is the solution. I think it's dangerous for originations to not let people attend meetings who might be "under the influence" because in my opinion that is the most important person in the room. You want to do everything you can to make sure that person returns and gets better. You can't expect someone to come back to a community of people when they were told to leave when they might've been looking for inspiration and a community to fall back on for support when they decide they're ready for detox. I also think it's very harmful to give addiction/recovery advice to family members based on how you recovered. Such as telling a mother to cut communication with their child because that's the only way they'll recover. By hitting an imaginary place, they call rock bottom. Then if something happens to the individual, the loves ones are left with so much guilt. Family members wishing they just loved them for them when they had the chance. 15 years ago, rock bottom consisted of losing your job, house, car, kids, and relationships. Today, rock bottom is death with over 100,000 people dying a year from this epidemic. Substance use disorder is a fatal disease if left untreated and people do not understand how valuable time is when your loved one is suffering. An example of stigma is how addiction is called a choice because one decided to try substances and people think they should accept the consequence because they should've known better then to try it in the first place. When people do unhealthy things with their bodies such as smoke, tan, or eat unhealthy knowing it could lead to cancer or diabetes. People don't harass cancer patients because they made a choice, people don't taunt cancer patients for needing medication options to treat their disease. Some people get cancer and other health issues and lived a completely healthy lifestyle. I know lots of people who lived a happy healthy life, going to school and has everything going for them who got hit by a drunk driver and got addicted to their pain medications after surgery. Actually 13 million Americans got hooked on opiates via deceptive marking practices by big pharma. They told everyone it was not addictive and started over prescribing and people started getting addicted. A person overdoses and passes away every 11 minutes to this epidemic and we need to be more focused on keeping people alive long enough to seek recovery.
