Bearing Witness to Addiction
By Albert B. Kelly
When it comes to the issue of addiction and how we deal with it we’ve come a long way, but we still have a lot of work to do. I say we have come a long way because it was not that long ago when the consensus verdict on those suffering from addiction of one sort or another was that they were all criminals suffering from some type of character flaw, a lack of will power, as if it were all about moral failure.
But today, slowly, with the help of medical science, we are coming to a greater understanding of how the brain works and this is changing our understanding of addiction. There are still a fair number of people who see those individuals suffering from addiction more as criminals than patients, but those perceptions are beginning to change.
The other thing that has helped with this evolution is the changing face of addiction especially as it relates to opioids. Not that long ago the stereotype of heroin addiction was a minority nodding out on a park bench or doing the heroin shuffle down some inner city street in Camden, Newark, or South Philly. When that was the face of addiction, treatment wasn’t really an option, what we got was a war on drugs.
That changed when the face of addiction became more suburban, more rural, whiter, and more middle class. When that happened, we began to rethink the whole framework and the response was less of the take-no-prisoners-war-on-drugs and more of a medical problem requiring in-patient treatment and out-patient programs. We’ll take progress any way we can get it, but the reality is that we need more of the latter approach, including medication assisted treatment, with greater access for all.
I say that because far too many people are dying from drug overdoses. Nationwide in 2019 there were some 70,630 overdose deaths, while in New Jersey that same year, there were 3,021 overdose deaths. Closer to home in Cumberland County in 2019, we lost 91 of our neighbors and family members. In 2020, there 3,046 overdose deaths in the state and 76 in Cumberland County. 2021 doesn’t appear to be shaping up any better around the state as we’ve lost 540 just in the first two months of the year and in Cumberland County, we’ve had 10 overdose deaths.
Having the benefit of being able to think about the problem from a medical standpoint, I’m not so sure the problem is a drug problem as much as it is an addiction problem. What I mean to say is that we’re living in an age when people of all shapes, sizes, colors, and backgrounds are addicted to a host of things as never before whether food, gambling, sex, or Facebook.
What medical science has shown us over the past decade is that the parts of the brain that light up in the drug addicted person are the same parts that light up when it comes to food, pornography, gambling, and social media apps like Facebook and Twitter. Not to put too fine a point on it, but companies spend a great deal of time and money precisely to make their products “addictive” so that you can’t them down.
Whether it’s sugar in beverages, salt and fat in food, or certain sounds and colors and “rewards” in digital apps, it is all designed to make the thing seamless and irresistible. It is why so many sleep with their devices and why it is the first thing that gets their attention when they wake up; it’s why some 36% of Americans today are obese and why the incidence of type 2 diabetes rose from 500,000 (1%) in 1958 to slightly more than 34 million (10.5%) today.
Our problem today is addiction and what makes drug addiction and the overdose deaths that result from it stand apart from many of the other forms of addiction we face as a society is the speed and suddenness with which it can take a life. What is needed, in addition to more research and better treatment options, is more compassion and understanding.
On August 31st at 6:00pm, the Cumberland County
Department of Human Services will hold its 5th Annual Overdose Awareness
Candlelight Vigil at the New Jersey Motorsports Park. It is an opportunity for
those who are grieving to find comfort in community and for the rest of us to
bear witness, and that’s no small thing.