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Faces & Voices in the News
Speaking out to fight the stigma of drug dependency
Deirdre Drohan Forbes
The JournalNews.com
July 30, 2004
(The writer, a Hastings-on-Hudson resident, is an alcohol and substance abuse counselor as well as the chair of the education committee for NCADD/Westchester, and the founding member of Friends and Voices of Recovery.) A friend recently suggested that coming out as an addict or alcoholic today is at about the point that coming out as gay was 20 years ago. It was rarely done. I hope that recovering addicts and alcoholics will have the same enormous impact on our society when we, too, are willing to be seen and heard.
I had my last drink 17 years ago. In that time, I've seen treatment and acceptance of addicts get worse, not better.
Hundreds of treatment centers have closed. The average length of in-patient rehab stays has been cut from 28 days to a week or less. Medical students still receive little training about addiction, although it's the "No. 1 health problem in America," according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. This is primarily because so many of our health and societal problems are connected to drugs or alcohol: accidents, high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer, homelessness, liver disease and more.
Society does not seem to mind treating the consequences of drug or alcohol abuse, but refuses to see the benefits in treating the primary illness.
It has been a bad year for those who suffer from chemical dependency in New York. "Timothy's Law," which would have legislated insurance parity with other treatable illnesses, was so watered down by the Senate that the O'Clairs, whose son the law is named after, asked to have his name removed from the legislation.
In addition, the state Court of Appeals ruled that a woman's disability insurance was not being discriminatory because her mental illness was only covered for 24 months, as opposed to a physical disability being covered until age 65. (If she were self-employed, she would have been turned down outright for disability if any medical record reported treatment for drug or alcohol abuse, no matter how far in the past.)
In truth, it may be that we, the victims, are to blame for lack of parity legislation. Those of us who have suffered chemical dependency and recover rarely bear witness to our recovery. We remain silent about having been sick at all, usually for reasons based in fear and shame.
It doesn't matter that people might have read our names in the paper for a DWI arrest, or saw us barely able to stand at our daughter's wedding. For some reason, we don't want to tell these same people that we're now sober.
It is time that we stand up and speak out. Those who provide treatment also need to let others know recovery is possible. I am convinced that the main reason why parity for chemical dependency treatment was eliminated from the Timothy's Law legislation was because we were not as active or vocal a lobby as were mental-health advocates.
Some of us, myself included, are in recovery from both mental illness and chemical dependency. How do we tell people who need help that they can afford to treat their mental illness, but they will have to figure out a way to pay for treating their alcoholism on their own? What can we do for the suffering families who are overwhelmed and stressed out from living with an active addict? How warped is a health-care system that forces parents to pray that their children will wind up in prison in order to get the mental-health or substance-abuse treatment that they need?
Many of us are powerful examples of recovery, but we must be willing to speak in order to be heard. We did not all take the same path to arrive at the same location. But we must put aside our differences, come together, and demand the attention, respect and treatment that we, and those still suffering, deserve.
A grass-roots recovery movement is growing in the United States. Faces and Voices Of Recovery (FAVOR), which is based in Washington, D.C., is organizing a national awareness campaign. The movement needs to grow exponentially in order to have our voices heard.
A small recovery group known as Friends and Voices of Recovery has formed in Westchester. The National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence/Westchester Inc. is a sponsor. I urge anyone who can testify to the reality of recovery to at least explore the possibility of joining us.
A special all-day regional training and education session for eradicating stigma and discrimination will be held in Manhattan on July 31. To learn more about it, or about joining a recovery group, please call me at (914) 478-3676 or email dforbes@tforbes.com
For more information
• Friends and Voices of Recovery, Westchester: Call Deirdre Drohan Forbes at (914) 478-3676 or email dforbes@tforbes.com
• National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence/Westchester Inc., 5 Waller Ave., White Plains, N.Y. 10601, or call (914) 949-8500. Web site: www.NCADD.info
• National Council on Alcoholism and Other Drug Dependencies/Putnam, 2 Church St., Carmel, N.Y. 10512, or call (845) 225-4646.
• Faces and Voices Of Recovery (FAVOR), Washington, D.C.:
www.facesandvoicesofrecovery.org. Site includes details about the July 31 session, "Fighting Stigma and Discrimination Training'' in Manhattan. Continuing education credits available.