Educational and social media campaign needed for addiction

As tragic as the news has been these last few weeks, with an ever increasing list of famous and not so famous people dying from overdoses and addictions, what is equally alarming is the reaction to these events in the media and on social media.

Media just want to find someone to blame and comments from people on social media are horribly ignorant of the origins of addiction and the causes and symptoms. Like the AIDS epidemic of the 80's that was shrouded in secrecy and shame, so has the disease of addiction fallen foul to the same malaise.

Comments like, why would he choose to take this stuff, or why didn't she think of her children, or  why didn't someone save him.......confirm my suspicions that people just don't understand this disease at all. They clearly don't know that its a largely genetic cerebral condition, completely out of the control of the addict and not something they CHOOSE to do. It chooses them and they go along unwillingly for the ride. Sufferers need intervention, real help and real treatment.

I believe that mental health issues and addiction has has for too long been ignored and swept under the carpet. Our jails are filled with mental health sufferers and addicts, who have have tried to self-medicate themselves. Family members are desperate as to how to deal with these sufferers. There just is nowhere to go, unless you are hugely wealthy and can afford longterm rehabilitation to ensure a more likely successful outcome. One month stints here and there, just don't work.

There is little or no infrastructure or safety net anywhere for ordinary people to access. Churches, Community rehab organizations and Counsellors seem to be the only resource for many. Churches who host AA and NA meetings at their facilities, are often the only option. Victims arrive at the ER at deaths' door and there is nowhere for them to go after that. Most end up on the street. Or worse.

Like the obesity issue, this issue needs to take front and center stage, through media ads, educational films and widespread assistance of how to help these people. Its a federal epidemic with national consequences and it needs a federal intervention. Maybe that would limit or even stop these violent shootings we see every few weeks, as well.

Unless you have known someone who has suffered with this illness or mental health issues, you have no business passing judgement on them.