National Overdose Awareness Day

Today is National Overdose Awareness Day. In fact, the entire month of August has been about addiction and overdose awareness and social media has been flooded with posts to bring attention to this national epidemic. I'm not sure how I feel about all of this. Reading post after post about those who lost their battle to addiction breaks my heart over and over again. How many times can our hearts be shattered this way? When I read stories of those who are successful in their recovery I feel joy for them and find myself silently cheering them on. At the same time, I am left wondering why Mikael was not able to make it. And I read statements such as, "you have to want it badly enough," "if you relapse, you were never really in recovery," and I am left feeling discouraged and confused. My mother's heart wants to protect Mikael from such statements but that protective instinct has nowhere to go.

I wonder if we will ever move forward from overdose awareness to overdose prevention, or overdose eradication. How much awareness does it take for people to believe that addiction is a disease? There are families all over this country who are living with loss because of it. And yet, still so many cannot put aside their misinformation, misunderstanding and judgement to accept this fact. How many times will I have to overhear terms such as "those addicts" "it was an addict house" in conversations taking place around me. Actually, not even overhear, I have had these statements said directly to me. I want people to know that when they use these terms, they are speaking about my son. When they generalize, they are doing so to my son. When they judge the manifestation of this disease, they are judging my son. And I will no longer stay silent when this happens. If Mikael were here, he would speak up and be part of dispelling the misunderstanding of this disease. So, now I will do my best to do so on his behalf.