By: E Rich

E Rich
Tue, 13 Oct 2020 14:19:28 +0000

Good to hear. There have been lots of stories about the horrors of living with inherited addictive illnesses. Attending 12 Step meetings will provide many more. Ohio has some of the worst incidence of addiction in the country. What is pretty much ignored is the medical and biological causes and the inter-generational stories of families suffering from addiction and living the effects of someone else's addiction. What are the stories of folks not afflicted by addition but living with it in a friend or loved one? Also, most story telling takes place from "outside-in", e.g., journalism, vs. the lived experience which is "inside-out." We need less "us" vs "them." Name calling is also a bad idea and blocks problem solving. Thus, folks are not "addicts" but people suffering from substance abuse disease (SUD) or addiction. Also, "Patients with lifetime SUD [addiction] diagnosis had significantly higher risk of developing COVID-19 compared to patients without...Patients with SUD often have multiple comorbidities, including cardiovascular, pulmonary, metabolic diseases, and increased susceptibility to infections...which are also risk factors for COVID-19"