You have gone through a drug and alcohol rehab program, worked very hard at staying sober. You have integrated many of the things you learned in rehab, and actually have made real strides at changing your life. Even with all these positive things since rehab you still may suffer with other peoples ideas about addiction and the labels they put on you. Even though you are no longer an addict, many still see you in this light. It’s like they expect you to fail and end back in rehab.

Prejudices About Addiction

Anyone who has experienced addiction is:

Untrustworthy A person without family or friends
Lazy Unpredictable
Unemployable Sexually promiscuous
Violent Undependable
Addicted for life A criminal
Emotionally unstable Beyond redemption

These are some of the prejudices people who have experienced addiction may need to overcome.

Where Does the Stigma about Addiction Come From?

Opinions based on incorrect knowledge.
Hold the view that there is little hope of recovery from addiction because neighbor still drinks.
Use inaccurate media coverage about crimes where the person was using drugs or alcohol.
Use cultural or family beliefs that may not be accurate.

Poor Understanding of Addiction because of :
Over simplified public messages like the â??Just Say Noâ?? campaign.
Biased treatment provider information such as the â??addict is powerlessâ?? or â??everybody relapsesâ??.
Limited quality research that is circulated to a narrow audience.

These are some of the erroneous beliefs that lead to discrimination. After you have been to rehab you may experience some or all of the above. The subject of the next few days will be how to deal with the above. Predudice can lead to increased stress in your life. Increased and uncontrolled stress become a negative cycle that may lead to relapse , and another trip to rehab which simply reinforces the streotype. More on this tomorrow.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 27th, 2005 at 7:45 pm and is filed under Drug Addiction, Drug Rehab. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.