05 May Overdose. Finding Hope in Tragedy.
Overdose. Finding Hope in Tragedy.
By Shane Currin
Beneath the buzzwords of “opioid crisis” and “overdose epidemic” lies the broken families and communities devastated by the loss. Addiction untreated has but one ultimate end. Overdose is rising in communities all over America. As more individuals fall stricken with substance use disorder and go untreated, the burden of their burial falls on the ones who love them the most. Left behind in the wake of tragedy, from something that feels so avoidable and while the pain begins to grow roots questions go unanswered. The stages of grief hit tenfold. Most people don’t understand addiction until their fists are clenched as a pallbearer laying someone they love to rest. Addiction is spirit breaking for all those involved, leaving a void in mourning souls left behind.
Families
The hope and healing we are often looking for can be found in the right expression of the hurt we feel. There’s a common saying “pain shared is pain lessened”. For those families that live on, the parents, the spouses, the children the tragedy of losing a loved one can become a support to this problem growing all around us. Resources can be found like Family Group Lions Gate Recovery. Where families can offer their stories as support to those who are still going through addiction with a person struggling. There’s that will bring our loved ones back from death. We can keep the memory living and how we choose to remember them and how their story can help someone else. When we bring hope out of tragedy we may begin to feel a small measure of peace again.
Loss in Recovery
Recovery from substance use disorder is on its own a difficult process. Some truths are inevitable while recovering from addiction. The statistics surrounding long term recovery are bleak, to say the least. Most information found suggests the average of those staying clean up to five years post addiction treatment is less than ⅓. This being said addicts and alcoholics must realize that in the pursuit of their recovery; within their community they will lose people close to them to relapse and overdose. Being in recovery exposes the truth of how often overdoses happen. Enough time in recovery you will see the magnitude of substance use disorder and how sometimes week to week can be the difference in life and death. Those in recovery must not be discouraged but the exact opposite, become inspired. The best way to remember the fallen is to honor them by staying true to the path of recovery. It is in their Memoriam those in recovery can remember how important it is to continue the long journey that is a life of recovery.
Endure
Family, friend or recovery comrade, they all endure. Smiling in the remembrance of the lost one and braving the difficult days. The birthdays and holidays remind of the constant void, the unforgiving emptiness. Finding meaning in service to volunteer efforts to those less fortunate, regrowing the seed of light to take the space of the existing cavity in the soul. Taking action into purpose and fulfillment to brave the decay of the loss. This new gain growing will never replace the shine from the person lost. It will suffice with action because there is no room for the rotting pain to expand. Dedication to the cause of recovery can sustain those who have lost so much due to addiction. Bonding with those who understand the pain help relieve the long-lasting heartache. Using the story of suffering to potentially save another may make the world look a little bit brighter again. For it is not the time lost but the time wasted in agony that will be resented. Together, addicts, grieving families can understand each other, and bring an epidemic closer into remission.
Finding the Hope
Not all overdose ends in tragedy. Some survive the life-shaking ordeal that is a drug overdose. Many recovering addicts & alcoholics will speak about the times their substance use almost claimed their lives, sometimes even more than once. A close as a brush with death can get, these brave individuals use this experience to remind themselves and others of work that is required to survive. Work that is done in treatment centers like Lions Gate Recovery and beyond. The hope in tragedy is the inspiration it gives to others to carry on, to continue their quest of recovery. Knowing that the choices surrounding substance use can be life or death adds motivation to stay on the right track. Once an addict or alcoholic truly embraces that their own life is on the line the can fully immerse themselves in a forthright pursuit of recovery.
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