I was deeply moved when I looked to my left as I was driving into San Francisco, today, and saw the pink triangle atop Twin Peaks (moved enough to risk snapping a photo and grateful traffic had slowed to a crawl).

For those who are not familiar with the Pink Triangle’s significance and history, it was first unfurled in SF on Pride Weekend in 1996 as an “educational tool for all to see,” because it was the triangle color the Nazis required homosexuals wear in the concentration camps.

Talk about crossing a discrimination threshold!

I then ruminated on how those installing the Pink Triangle this year must have felt to be doing it the day after the Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of same-sex marriage. Talk about another discrimination threshold crossing!

And then my thoughts turned to the Addiction Recovery Movement and the incredible oppportunity we have to UNITE to Face Addiction and Stand up For Recovery.

Because that’s exactly what the LBGT movement did. They united; they rallied; they advocated; they spoke out; they educated; they withstood prejudice, discrimination, stigma, misinformation, persecution and shame. They stood proud. And slowly – oh so slowly but determindly – they kept at it until they won. Not that they’ve won it all by any means but they have shifted an entire country’s attitudes. And it’s attitudes that matter for they are what change laws and minds and communities and schools and justice systems and families and civil rights…. They are what can move a country to cross discrimination thresholds.

Addiction Recovery Can Too

It’s our time to change attitudes.

23+ million Americans struggle with addiction, but only 10% get the help they need

23+ million Americans are in recovery

100 million family members are affected by a loved one’s substance use disorder — the moms, dads, brothers, sisters, children, grandparents, husbands, wives, inlaws, boyfriends, girlfriends, close friends…, aka the people who struggle with Secondhand Drinking | Secondhand Drugging.

Together, WE total some 146 million Americans – that’s more than one-third the American population!

And WE are UNITEing to FACE ADDICTION and STAND UP for RECOVERY on Octber 4, 2015, to end our silence.

So please, join this transformative event being organized by Facing Addiction Inc., a 501(c)3 organization dedicated to finding solutions to the addiction crisis, as well as an independent coalition of national, state, and local non-profit organizations. It’s taking place on The Mall in Washington, D.C.

UNITE to Face Addiction and Stand up for RECOVERY 10.4.15

For when we unite the voices of the family with those struggling and those in recovery, WE bring the power of more than one-third of the American population to stand up:

• for effective treatment, prevention and intervention
• for better legal, social and health-care policies around mental health and risk factors
• for an end to the war on drugs
• for adequate health insurance coverage to treat both sides of this family disease
• for dignity and respect and compassion and understanding for those who struggle with this disease
• for an end to the stigma, misininformation and shame about a treatable, preventable brain disease and the people who have it – a disease from which one can absolutely RECOVER if/when they can/do treat their disease
• for crossing a movement’s worth of discrimination thresholds

Get the Facts, Plan to Attend, Become a Partner and Share Why You’re Going

Find out what this event is about, who’s going, who’s partnering, how to get there and so much more by clicking here for UNITE to Change Addiction FAQs.

Plan to attend. I realize we are all so very busy and often personal finances are low, but if there’s any way you can gather one or two friends to split the costs, please plan to be there, and/or encourage your friends in the area to try and make it. And, if you can’t, please do what you can to share the message with your social media contacts, doctors, mental health care professionals, teachers, administrators and whomever else you can think of who needs to know that recovery is real, it happens to real people and it happens all the time!

And if you plan to go – share why you’re going. And if your organzation wants to Partner with UNITE to Face Addiction, click on this link, Become a Partner Organization, to learn more (when you’re there, scroll down a ways

This is OUR opportunity to unite those in recovery, those who struggle with substance use disorders and those who love them to end the silence. And when we end the silence, we shift attitudes – we end the stigma, secrecy, misinformation and shame that allows this public health concern – this brain disease – to march unchecked through lives. And when we shift attitudes, that’s when we cross our own discrimination thresholds.

__________________________

* Pew Research Center, Changing Attitudes on Gay Marriage, “Present who…” graph – hover over year for figures to appear.

©2015 Lisa Frederiksen

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Lisa Frederiksen

Author | Speaker | Consultant | Founder at BreakingTheCycles.com

Lisa Frederiksen is the author of hundreds of articles and 12 books, including her latest, "10th Anniversary Edition If You Loved Me, You'd Stop! What you really need to know when your loved one drinks too much,” and "Loved One In Treatment? Now What!” She is a national keynote speaker with over 30 years speaking experience, consultant and founder of BreakingTheCycles.com. Lisa has spent the last 19+ years studying and simplifying breakthrough research on the brain, substance use and other mental health disorders, secondhand drinking, toxic stress, trauma/ACEs and related topics.

Latest posts by Lisa Frederiksen (see all)

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