Addressing the concept of stigma in addiction -mental masturbation at its finest

Problem - Death rates from substance abuse across the entire spectrum are increasing

Problem - Failure to create universal mandates to assure that all treatment entities meet the minimum accepted standards of care including immediate access to mental health, psychiatric diagnosis and medical management; looking at individual providers recidivism rates, how many times a client returns to a detox rehab or how often they bounce from one to another without any improvement; holding providers to higher standards by withholding compensation when they fail to meet minimum benchmarks which have yet to be created regarding recidivism, time to treatment, etc.

Problem – NIDA, ASAM SAMHSA and other “leading” substance abuse treatment entities are still missing the big picture. The latest and greatest solution is at worse, misdirection and at best, mental masturbation.

And the solution to these is... Stop calling people names!

Having read numerous times in a plethora of internet publications and articles regarding the direction of huge amounts of time and energy towards this new excuse for failure To have any improvement in the universal spectrum of substance abuse, the newest proposals to resolve these issues namely addressing STIGMA, causes me to shake my head in disbelief !!!

While I appreciate the hyper focused attention on bullying, to actually believe that someone (especially in adult) would have hurt feelings by being called names that are in fact actual and correct would cause them to avoid getting the help and more, direct them toward use of illicit substances.

I invite you to read a follow-up posting in LinkedIN (or enjoy my TikToks at the_doc_is_on_tik_tok) in which I will discuss how ASAM has closed its eyes to the only positive reporting of a definitive successful treatment protocol for Methamphetamine, But for now, will simply state that despite a statistically solid 86% success rate, and with respect to their very, very good publication for which the bottom line was that there is no current pharmacotherapeutic treatment for methamphetamine but only a highly complicated and costly mental health counseling treatment with a 17% success rate at best!!? And yet at the upcoming ASAM conference in April, the focus will be on this fantasy solution I am currently writing about.!

I have been treating drug addicts (I'm calling a spade a spade here) for six plus years.? One of the absolute rules in my program is that there is no judgment allowed when we speak.? However, I use the term “drug addiction” and talk about them being “a drug addict” and how “they have made poor choices” in the past and the entire spectrum of what we would hope to do with them to help them achieve sobriety, abstinence, and an unquestionably better life. For those whose urine drug screen shows what I affectionately call a toilet (the specimen shows the entire spectrum of illicit substances) I actually asked them point blank if they have made their Funeral arrangements because they are going to die if they continue this behavior.? I can say without equivocation, that we have never, ever had a single patient tell me that I hurt their feelings by calling them a drug addict or they were taken aback by my use of the term drug addiction, or other equally ludicrous considerations. What I find in fact is that straight talk without embellishment, without trying to smooth over perceived or potential hurt feelings does only positive things.? ?These patients (yet another term in question in deference to “clients”) refer to themselves as drug addicts and freely talk about their addiction.? For those patients that we lose at any point after evaluation who then returned to us when they are more ready and willing to accept the treatment that we offer, we are never told they left because we hurt their feelings.? In fact, we are told that our straight talk with them help them to better recognize their issues and to seek help and that now was the time they were ready!

And so to those reading this who actually believe that addressing stigma is the key to the smallest possibility of improving how addiction treatment is offered, conducted, with the attendant outcomes, I invite you to my clinic in Indianapolis to see patients with me and how treating them as adults and talking frankly and honestly rather than trying to sugarcoat a problem that will unquestionably lead to their death, is what real addiction treatment is about.