Shaming the Sick: Substance Use and Stigma | Dr Carolyn Greer | TEDxFortWayne

Comments · 119

• PH

  @philmccrevis5364 · 5 years ago (edited)

  This is my Dr. She is the best thing that's happened to me, outside my wife and kids. Phil is NOT my real name, I don't want the "stigma", hence the fake name. But she is great. She cares.

  83

• SH

  @ShannonWiebold · 2 years ago

  Great talk and as an addict, i agree with EVERYTHING the doctor spoke about. Stigmas on addicts need to change in order to save lives.

  8

• SA

  @sarahcouture24 · 2 years ago

  Thank you for speaking the evidence based truth on this highly relevant and distressing topic. I hate the stigma. I hate the policies. I hate the war on drugs and the pervasive ignorance in this country. So thank you for being a voice for change.

  7

• AM

  @amandajohns46774 · 2 years ago

  I never knew you did this! You are such an inspiration and I’m proud to have you as my doctor! Your voice is so important in ending the stigma surrounding addiction!

  8

• LA

  @laurac1842 · 5 years ago

  A minute and a half in and I'm in tears. I am an addict in recovery and so this hits home. Although I am stable on a methadone prescription I am struggling to see how I will ever be completely free. I also have depression anxiety and PTSD and a lot of my using was because of Trauma. Thank you for this talk 🙏

  44

• BR

  @BrittneyWitherspoon · 5 years ago

  thank u so much for talking about this! my ex boyfirnd used and was afraid to tell the doctor he did but was having health issues because he didnt want his kids taken...plus he didnt want to be looked at as a bad person, Its sad that once you mention drug addiction everyone views you as a bad person even though they have no idea what LED you to use....another problem is not having good insurance(ppo) they just dont have the knowlege or dont care....anyways i wish EVERYONE  had the knowledge you have so that ppl with substance abuse and mental health issues could get better...Thank you!

  9

• RY

  @ryansutter4291 · 5 years ago

  As an addict, for 20 years, I have been on and off and on and off and on and off in my struggles with substances. In and out of relapse and using and relapse and using and relapse and using. And going through that cycle over, and over, and over all of these years, I&apos;ve noticed this element of shame that underlies a lot of it. Even the &apos;best&apos; place people are told to turn to, narcotics/alcoholics anonymous....the very fact that it has to be anonymous, it&apos;s a part of stigmatizing that shame that comes with addiction. Like your telling people yeah we notice it&apos;s a problem, here&apos;s a place to get help, BUT do it quietly. Anonymously. In shame. And it shouldn&apos;t be like that. And a lot of mental health issues are like that, there is no patience for it or towards it. And when people need help, it should be encouraged for them to do that and step up to that process. It takes a lot of courage to recover. And I think a lot more people would make it if they didn&apos;t feel lesser or feel so much shame for having experienced what they have.<br>Nobody wants to be an addict. And compassion and connection helps more than anything. And aside from the physical part of the substance abuse the mental and psychological and social parts are all just as big a part of it. So it isnt as straight up as one problem one fix. It&apos;s a million problems that cause the ONE problem so there has to be those MILLION fixes and even then that almost always has to be slowly apporoched and one day and one step at a time. <br>Patience. Empathy.<br>But back to the shame, I think if people could just be encouraged to be open and not feel stigmatized or punished for what they have done or even been through. Not blamed, but made to see that it was okay, it&apos;s okay that that happened. That would go a long, long way. You have to be responsible for your own recovery, yes, but you can&apos;t punish yourself about it forever, and the people that are in your life or just people in general shouldnt judge that effort or struggle at the very least.<br>It is a real disease, it is a myriad of sickness. Physically. Mentally. Socially. And it is a hard, hard road for a person and their families to experience.

  7

• JA

  @jacksparrow3235 · 3 years ago

  Dr Greer is a great doctor , she is a true leader in MAT programs in Fort Wayne

  3

• AP

  @applejax1017 · 5 years ago

  I cannot explain how much this talk means to me. Thank you, Dr. Greer. Hearing talks like this give me hope for the future, and that maybe it really is possible to get past the stigma surrounding addiction in the United States.

  16

• KC

  @kcstorytime4898 · 5 years ago

  Dr. Greer, you are such a beautiful women. &nbsp;I am crying listening to your message as I do suffer with substance use after being a victim of DV and I long for compassion and community to help exit this but as I am functional in many aspects and a Christian when I do look for help it falls on judgmental ears that also have no solutions absent thousands of dollars which I don&apos;t have for treatment as I am without health insurance or the financial resources to spend $35,000 dollars for treatment. &nbsp;Thank you for showing love and compassion for people. &nbsp;I hope others model your behavior in the future and public health care will open up to helping instead of judging.

  28

• DE

  @dem3817 · 3 years ago (edited)

  in 2010, i had my daughter, I was 20 almost 21, and I begged and cried to my OBGYN that i was addicted and didn&apos;t know what to do. she told me, &quot;I&apos;m not qualified to handle this situation.&quot; and literally hung up the phone on me. I went back for my appt. a week later, she never said a word about it, moving forward. not till I went into labor, and I told them at the hospital then they accused me of smoking weed in my delivery room and took my daughter away and kicked me out. I was never treated with anything other than you&apos;re a horrible person, you don&apos;t deserve children, etc. I was told I couldn&apos;t have children; I was still on birth control because my periods were extremely painful, and i still got pregnant, I didn&apos;t find out till was almost 5 months pregnant. Not much I could do, I looked for help and was shut down. Now I work to help mothers, so they don&apos;t have to endure what I endured.

  7

• AR

  @areyouseriousholmes · 4 years ago

  They make you call yourself an addict in the NA, AA, programs. And i never liked calling myself that

  5