The Overdose Crisis: Let’s Keep Talking

With National Addictions Awareness Week coming up, my mind has been on the overdose crisis again. Actually, the crisis is something I think about all the time since I work in this field as a mental health and substance use counsellor in our local community.

As a team, we’ve lost many people to overdose. I watch the amazing team I work with struggle with the pain of lost lives. We know the hearts and souls of these folks who have become statistics in the media; these are folks who have shared their stories, hopes, dreams, and some of their darkest and most traumatic moments with us.

The clients I work with come from families just like ours. I know none of them want to live this way, to be a slave to a substance that, at any moment, could end their life. I see posts from Moms Stop The Harm about young Canadian men and women who we’ve lost to overdose. Families who have lost their sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, grandchildren…. Moms and dads who fought to bring their child back from the brink of addiction; families who had no idea their loved one was experimenting with substances until it was too late.

It’s also hits to home for me because I am a parent and I can’t help but worry about the five amazing children we (my partner and I) have. They are always on my mind. I can’t help but think “what if”… are they safe? And what about their friends? These kids have grown up in our home too… some of them have been a part of our lives since they were toddlers. These thoughts hang over me like a dark cloud some days.

And what pains me the most is how people are portrayed in the media: often it’s an “us and them” position that fuels a detached indifference. I see it reflected in the political will put into increasing awareness, and in developing and funding programs whether it be for treatment or prevention efforts.

I was disappointed – but not surprised – to see the indifference in the United States media. The number of overdose deaths that have occurred in the United States gets the odd headline and only when the CDC puts out their reports. The numbers are staggering: over 72,000 people have died of overdose deaths in 2017 and most of those are from opioids. That is almost double the rate of deaths caused by motor vehicle accidents in the U.S., which, by the way, receives a lot more “oh my goodness, we must do something about these staggering numbers” type media coverage. When I was googling to find information on the opioid crisis in the states, only a couple articles came up (and not overly informative). I found scads of articles on the “worrisome picture” of MVAs.

In Canada, we seem to be doing marginally better. With 10% of the population of the United States, we lost just under 4000 people to overdose deaths (according to a Canadian Govt website) in 2017. We’ve been hit harder here in British Columbia, probably because of our proximity to China where the synthetic illicit opioids (fentanyl, carfentanyl) are mostly likely coming from. We’ve also had more meaningful media coverage. Our governments and health authorities are working towards solutions to mitigate the crisis and keep people alive, but it’s frustrating when the barriers to treatment programs persist. People trying to access services are expected to prove that they are “treatment ready” or be “group appropriate” (these statements infuriate me).

We always seem to be one step behind, fighting fear, judgement and stigma. It’s a complex issue and there’s simply not a silver bullet or a magic wand, but I know we can do better.

References

CNBC. Traffic deaths edge lower, but 2017 stats paint worrisome picture. 15 Feb 2018. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/14/traffic-deaths-edge-lower-but-2017-stats-paint-worrisome-

National report: Apparent opioid-related deaths in Canada. (released September 2018). https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/publications/healthy-living/national-report-apparent-opioid-related-deaths-released-september-2018.html

NIDA. Overdose Death Rates. August 2018. https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates

The Guardian. US drug overdose deaths rose to record 72,000 last year, data reveals. 16 Aug 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/16/us-drug-overdose-deaths-opioids-fentanyl-cdc

U.S. vehicle deaths topped 40,000 in 2017, National Safety Council estimates. USA Today. 15 Feb 2018. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2018/02/15/national-safety-council-traffic-deaths/340012002/

The Practical Catharsis of Dream Journalling

Dreams might have some similarities, upon which dream interpretation lies, but there are more individual, situational and cultural variations that, in truth, the only person who can interpret with any real authority is the dreamer him/herself. I do suggest dream journalling to help my clients make sense of some of the images, but my primary goal in having them write down their dream is to connect with the feelings and “get it out of their minds.” I have done this time and time again and it has been highly successful for most clients. I will share an example.

One client I had been working with for several years continued to have reoccurring and graphic nightmares of being raped and molested (she has a very abused and traumatic history). She had been having this same dream (or dreams with a very similar theme) almost nightly since she was a teenager (she is now in her mid-30s). She chronically abused medications and illicit drugs to cope and whenever she would clean up and get sober, she suffered with these nightmares. She didn’t want to write down the dreams. It scared her. I hesitated to suggest it initially; sometimes these forms of “therapy” (recalling, retelling, rewriting) can retraumatize and inadvertently strengthen the neural pathways of the traumatic event. However, I have learned that writing down dreams can be quite cathartic and can release them from the mind. She didn’t take my suggestion at first; she actually looked at me as if I were crazy. However, she took a chance one night when the dream was particularly bad for her. She wrote it down and then she slept for four nights in a row with no nightmares! When she came to therapy group the following week, she shared how relieved she was to finally have a peaceful night’s sleep. She shared her dream journal with the group and she was deeply moved by the support she received. There was no need to analyze or tease out any meaning. Her feelings were meaningful enough, and sharing it gave her strength.