Addiction – Substance Use Disorders – Families – We Recover | We Vote

Addiction – Substance Use Disorders – Families.  We Recover | We Vote and We are Facing Addiction!

WE are the more than one-hundred million Americans who are either living their lives in long-term recovery from addiction (aka Substance Use Disorders) OR the family and friends whose lives were devastatingly changed trying to help loved ones seek, find, and succeed in recovery. And WE are a force for change!

Here’s what I’m talking about…

Caucuses for Addiction Solutions at the Upcoming DNC and RNC Conventions!

Caucus for Addiction Solutions at the Republican National Convention on July 19, 1:00 - 3:00 p.m. Sponsored by Facing Addiction

Caucus for Addiction Solutions at the Republican National Convention on July 19, 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. Sponsored by Facing Addiction. Click on the image to go to the FB page and sign up to Caucus!

Caucus for Addiction Solutions at the Republican National Convention on July 26, 1 - 3:00 p.m.

Caucus for Addiction Solutions at the Democratic National Convention on July 26, 1 – 3:00 p.m. Sponsored by Facing Addiction. Click on the image to go to the FB page and sign up to Caucus!

The Republican National Convention happens this coming week-end, July 18-21, and the Democratic National Convention follows in two weeks on July 25-28. And for the first time, ever, those in the recovery movement will be holding caucuses for addiction solutions. If you’ve been involved in this movement as long as I have – you’re as thrilled as I am at this accomplishment by Facing Addiction, a national non-profit demanding solutions to the addiction crisis. Who could have imagined such a thing less than a year ago! And not only imagine Caucuses at the DNC and RNC, but to image that in just this past year and a half:

  • the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) would be on it’s way to the President’s desk for signature;
  • the Senate would unanimously confirm the appointment of Michael Botticelli, a person in long-term recovery from a substance use disorder for more than 26 years, as Director of National Drug Control Policy at the White House;
  • the U.S. Surgeon General would issue these remarks at the UNITE to Face Addiction Rally on The Mall on October 4, 2015, “We’re going to stop treating addiction as a moral failing, and start seeing it for what it is: a chronic disease that must be treated with urgency and compassion…which is why I’m proud to announce that next year, I will be releasing the first-ever Surgeon General’s Report on substance use, addiction, and health.”
  • tens of thousands of Americans from across the country would gather to “end the silence” at the Unite to Face Addiction Rally in Washington, D.C., on October 4, 2015; and
  • over 760 partnering organizations, representing some 15 million Americans, would be working together to create the Facing Addiction Advocacy Network Advocacy Agenda.

And the best part of all, there are millions more and…

We Recover | We Vote – We are a Force for Change – Addiction   Substance Use Disorders   Families

We Recover | We Vote! I was proud to carry this placard at the Unite to Face Addiction Rally on The Mall, October 4, 2015.

We Recover | We Vote! I was proud to carry this placard at the Unite to Face Addiction Rally on The Mall, October 4, 2015, and proud to celebrate 12 years recovery last year – in my case, recovery from secondhand drinking – the physical, emotional, and quality  of life impacts I’d experienced in my fight to help my loved ones get help and succeed in recovery. For more on my story, click on the photograph.

I am so grateful to be one of the “We.” We are:

  • the more than 23 million Americans who are living their lives in recovery for substance use disorders (aka addiction), and
  • the 100 million Americans who are the family members of those whose lives are shattered by addiction and whose own lives are equally, devastatingly changed.
We are a Force for Change. Those of us able to speak out are doing what we can to help Americans understand the following so we can collectively help the more than 22 million Americans who still struggle with this brain disease and the family members who love them and are trying their best to help, namely:

Bottom Line

This is an election year and one of the easiest, most effective ways you can get involved is to vote. Vote for candidates who are willing to take up our cause the same way candidates have taken up other health causes over the years — cancer and HIV-AIDS research, treatment, and prevention, to name two.
When we vote, we create one of the most powerful voices Facing Addiction. Together – we can do this!

 

Lisa Frederiksen

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.
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