Fighting the Stigma
Addiction can be lonely and isolating, not only for the person struggling but also for family members. Both face the weight of public condemnation and the sting of hypocrisy. We in society hear the words, the opposite of addiction is connection, and addiction is a family disease. Yet we judge and shame as if we are not part of the community that creates the conditions for addiction.
Goethe once said, “Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them to become what they are capable of being.” Each one of us is human. Any one of us can unknowingly fall into addictive patterns, and some of us are more susceptible. Genetics, the strength of substances, social dislocation, trauma, and adverse childhood experiences — all play a role in developing substance use disorder. Until we treat all citizens as fellow human beings — walking in their moccasins — we will continue to isolate, marginalize, and keep down a silent, suffering “underclass” in the chains of addiction.
To Walk in These Moccasins
by Teresa Cobleigh, aka “Mama T”
Please try to understand me
And judge me not
For I am the brother
the son of a mother
one of the million
Sisters, uncles, fathers, friends
And one of you
Don’t call me weak
Or judge me for my affliction
Who stood by me?
Were you there to listen?
There are few who knew my heart
Many of you seemed miles apart
How does it feel to walk in these moccasins?
Chin up, grin, and bear it
Stuff it down
Carry on
Never measure up
Count my failings
Preach the moral high ground
Give me your cold shoulder
A font of nothing from a polished cup
Please try to understand me
And judge me not
For I am one who stood before you
One who came as the least
In a broken, fatherless generation
Your lost
marginalized
homeless
addicted
neglected
shunned
judged
lost sheep
I am
The one left behind
The one you didn’t make time for
The one who fell from favor
The one you didn’t visit or call
Yes, flawed
No more or less than any of you
So cast no stones
I am one of you
And I am one who took the fall
We of little faith
How long?
How long before we open our hearts?
How long before we love another as ourselves?
Are these not serving hands?
How long before we rise and stand?
Every child is worthy
Who will speak for them?
The misguided, misunderstood
Cast aside and forgotten?
Perhaps one who bore a motherload
Will stand to speak her truth
One who watched with despair
When no one was there.
Leaders of a generation
Hear my prayer!
To know the heart of one who struggled
To know the pain of one so troubled
Their voices we might hear
With our God-given ears!
I carried him with me
I carry him in my heart
I followed his footsteps
And we made lovely footprints in the sand
We explored this beautiful, sacred land
The beaches, the mountains,
the deserts, the plains
And I would do it again, again and again
To have experienced both the joy and the pain
To have loved unconditionally
To have known this greatest gift
And to bear witness
To the broken-hearted
voice crying out
and the part in all of us that needs love,
connection and healing
So, hear my prayer
And forgive us our trespasses
As we seek to better understand and
Love one another
And see each one
As sister and brother
Together, we can fight the stigma. Together, we can create resilient communities, free of judgement and full of hope. Together, we can be the difference.
