Sober Living

The Tragedy Continues

At least 1x per week I get a text, or a private message, or a phone call about someone who has died of an overdose or a suicide related to addiction. It seems they just keep dying needlessly!

Sometimes the details are unclear. However, many times I know the person and I know the story behind the tragedy; in terms of treatment attempts, recovery attempts, mental health, other issues.

Sometimes the person was completely disengaged from recovery.

A person who had never really tried as the disease got them too early. Usually this is a young person.

But lately it’s been people who are deeply involved in recovery and/or treatment.

Actually, a few cases this past 3 or 4 weeks involved people who just completed treatment.

In 2 cases people who were actively in recovery housing/treatment setting when they died.

How Is This Still Happening?

I’ve been doing addiction treatment and recovery work professionally for nearly 20 years.

This is no longer your garden variety addiction. The disease has mutated.

Addiction is such a different issue than it was even 10 years ago; presenting dramatically different challenges.

Expecting More Deaths

If we do not radically change our professional treatment response to this issue you can expect ongoing escalation of overdoses.

I think all options should be on the table for all patients at all times.

All options including mass access to affordable medication assisted treatment with no strings attached.

Perhaps every licensed or accredited treatment organization should also be required to provide harm reduction services?

For God’s sake this is a healthcare issue. Stop allowing people to run treatment programs based on personal ideology.

Dying On The Way To The Bottom

We should not be sitting back waiting until the pain gets great enough and they want to go back to rehab and try to get it right the next time….especially people who have taken that route countless times before.

Rinse and repeat treatment is not going to work in the era of fentanyl and carfentanil.

Unfortunately, I don’t see a paradigm shift coming any time soon…in the meantime let’s hope we can at least get more distribution of narcan. Learn from other states and try to get on top of these deaths.

Do you see what’s happening?

They are dying on the way to “bottom”…

Desperate Times

And don’t say this is how it’s always been… no it is not how “it’s always been”.

These are empirical facts. People have never died at anything close to this rate.

We’ve never seen anything like this ever before in the history of the world.

It actually goes way beyond fentanyl or carfentanil. It’s alcohol and all other drugs as well.

There is a time and place for something new.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.