Get Ready, Get Set – Recovery Month 2014
The 25th Recovery Month celebration is just around the corner, and September will be here in no time.
Why should we ALL care?
Because 23 million people are living in Recovery – something of which most people are not aware.
Because 23 million more struggle with the chronic, often relapsing brain disease of addiction of which fewer than 10 percent are getting the help they need.
Because more than 100 million Americans* have been affected by someone’s addiction or substance misuse behaviors, meaning they’ve been directly affected by Secondhand Drinking (Secondhand Drugging), which carries its own physical, mental health and emotional consequences as a result of its chronic activation of the fight-or-flight stress response system when the root causes of drinking behaviors are not understood nor coping with them managed effectively.
Because all of us are touched in some way, whether that be as far removed as the co-worker, tax payer or innocent community member who pays the economic costs resulting from losses in workplace productivity, health care expenses for problems caused by substance misuse and SHD-related stress, related law enforcement and other criminal justice expenses and motor vehicle crash costs from impaired drivers.
There is something in this Recovery Month celebration for each and every one of us. To that end, let me share a few of the ways you can get involved.
Ways Your Organization or Community Can Get Involved in the Recovery Month Celebration
The following opportunities are thanks to SAMHSA and the Recovery Month team, who’ve described the 25th annual celebration as follows:
In its 25th year, Recovery Month promotes the societal benefits of prevention, treatment, and recovery for mental and substance use disorders. This year’s theme,“Join the Voices for Recovery: Speak Up, Reach Out,” encourages people to openly speak up about mental and substance use disorders and the reality of recovery, and promotes ways individuals can use to recognize behavioral health issues and reach out for help. Recovery Month spreads the positive message that behavioral health is essential to overall health, that prevention works, treatment is effective and people can and do recover.
Ways You – Individually – Can Get Involved in the Recovery Month Celebration
Click on the following links and take the action and then share the statement in your social media feeds – Twitter and FB, as examples – help spread the word!
Take the Pledge 4 #Recovery, then challenge friends, family, & loved ones to pledge!
Let people know about a #RecoveryMonth event in your area
Speak up so everyone can hear your inspiring story of #recovery!
And for More Information on the Ongoing Recovery Movement and the Disease of Addiction
Check out the following resources:
Recovery is Real. It happens to real people and it happens all the time. Check out BreakingTheCycles.com’s Faces of Recovery…
[*Note: The “more than 100 million” figure includes persons experiencing both secondhand drinking and secondhand drugging. Elsewhere on this site, recently, you will have seen the figure of 90 million repeatedly used. That figure refers to those experiencing secondhand drinking.]
Lisa Frederiksen
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