{"id":933,"date":"2026-01-19T11:52:41","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T16:52:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sobriety-together.com\/?p=933"},"modified":"2026-01-19T11:52:41","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T16:52:41","slug":"whazzup-with-stigma-part-1-of-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sobriety-together.com\/index.php\/whazzup-with-stigma-part-1-of-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Whazzup with Stigma? Part 1 of 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recovery thought-leader, Sandy Rivers*<\/strong>\u00a0has raised an interesting question about stigma.\u00a0 Over on LinkedIn, she asks:\u00a0 \u201cHow do you think changing our attitudes about SUD can impact stigma<\/em>?\u201d (https:\/\/tinyurl.com\/Rivers-LinkedIn-Jan-2026<\/a>)\u00a0 Sandy avoids the word \u201caddiction,\u201d which is currently viewed by tastemakers as – yes! -stigmatizing.<\/h4>\n

It\u2019s a great question.\u00a0 One that leads highly motivated activists to \u201cshare their story.\u201d \u00a0Or \u201cself-disclose,\u201d as the clinicians say.\u00a0 Ugh; horrid phrase.\u00a0 Sounds like something you\u2019d do in a cop shop.\u00a0 The idea being that personal testimony will melt the hardened heart and, ultimately, abolish stigma.<\/p>\n

Well, good luck with that, as the Americans say.<\/p>\n

I fell into this very trap.\u00a0 Back in old country, I became the face of a controversial social cause through testifying at a contentious public meeting.\u00a0 The usual carnival ensued and I was widely quoted in the media.\u00a0 I have no evidence whatsoever that this exhausting parade changed a single mind, but the usual insults were forthcoming.\u00a0 Lenny Bruce<\/strong> gave me strength, and my heart was warmed by receiving a Miraculous Medal from one concerned woman, a token I cherish.\u00a0 (If you know, you know.)<\/p>\n

I won\u2019t make that mistake again.<\/p>\n

Perhaps it\u2019s different in the U.S., but I\u2019m not convinced.\u00a0 On a recent visit to a prominent treatment agency, a supervisor \u2013 indifferent to my status as a representative of what I insist on calling the \u201cpeer recovery profession” \u2013 blithely referenced her colleagues thus:\u00a0 \u201cThose peers.\u00a0 Just waiting for an excuse for their next use.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 She was referring to staff members holding professional CRPA** certifications, most claiming addiction recovery status, and her remarks were based on no documentary evidence, just prejudice.\u00a0 Or stigma, as Sandy might say.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t end there.\u00a0 Sandy reports that traditional recovery venues may themselves be stigmatizing:\u00a0 \u201cMuch of this [healing] work [giving someone a place to truly tell their story] still happens quietly, behind closed doors, in church basements and meeting halls, unintentionally reinforcing the stigma surrounding substance use disorder.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

Yikes!<\/p>\n

Where should we meet?\u00a0 The beach?\u00a0 Well, 12-Step meetings happen on the sand.\u00a0 A public park?\u00a0 Ditto.\u00a0 I would suggest that it\u2019s the person looking crooked at individuals entering undercrofts who are doing the stigmatizing, not the buildings.<\/p>\n

At national level, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996<\/strong> addresses these issues in the clinical setting.\u00a0 \u201cHIPAA is a federal law that [\u2026] was enacted to ensure the privacy<\/strong> and security of health information, facilitating the electronic exchange of health data while safeguarding <\/strong>patient rights<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 (Emphasis added) (https:\/\/www.hhs.gov\/hipaa\/for-professionals\/privacy\/laws-regulations\/index.html<\/a>)<\/p>\n

If we agree that addiction is a medical condition, as in the Substance Use Disorder (SUD) designation, we should expect that these privacy and safeguarding principles extend into our ordinary lives where we’re discreet about our overall medical status.\u00a0 That is, we are due the same privacy standards, not an (unintentional) expectation that \u2013 in (unproven) interests of the greater good – we will expose ourselves and our private healing process to an (unimpressed) public.<\/p>\n

Privacy does not equate with isolation.\u00a0 Alcoholic Anonymous\u2019 12th<\/sup> Tradition, read at every meeting, exhorts group members to confidentiality (anonymity) for the same purposes as HIPAA (privacy and safeguarding).\u00a0 That is, to support their personal healing, members bring their unexpurgated stories to the group for witness on the explicit undertaking that everyone will respect their privacy.\u00a0 Where this happens physically is a logistical matter resolved per local real estate options, not by stigma worries.<\/p>\n

This tradition also encourages humility \u2013 no member, or her story, is more important than another.\u00a0 Some of the feedback I got years ago was of the \u201cwho does she think she is\u201d variety, a rubbishing of the self-disclosure strategy if ever there was one.\u00a0 It’s a valid objection.\u00a0 There\u2019s wisdom in discretion.\u00a0 A life of dignity and integrity may speak louder than any TikTok.<\/p>\n

At least, this seems to be the alternative strategy favored by a majority of the estimated 23m+ Americans in addiction recovery who quietly pursue their everyday lives far from the madding crowd, as the poet has it.\u00a0 You’ll find many of them in church basements.<\/p>\n

Quite simply, in the words of the old song, my recovery status, my medical history, and my personal experience, \u201cAin\u2019t nobody\u2019s business but my own<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n

Next up<\/span>:\u00a0 Stigma lives personally but acts publicly<\/strong>.\u00a0 Part 2 of this two-part essay series, coming soon.<\/p>\n

* Full disclosure:\u00a0 I have the honor of training with Sandy and her long-term training partner, Lisa Ardner<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0 They are compassionate professionals for whom I have the highest respect and regard.\u00a0 See, A Purpose 4 Life Evidence-Based Professional &Workforce Development Training<\/a>.<\/p>\n

** Certified Recovery Peer Advocate, the NYS peer recovery support specialist credential (IC&RC<\/a> via OASAS<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recovery thought-leader, Sandy Rivers*\u00a0has raised an interesting question about stigma.\u00a0 Over on LinkedIn, she asks:\u00a0 \u201cHow do you think changing our attitudes about SUD can impact stigma?\u201d (https:\/\/tinyurl.com\/Rivers-LinkedIn-Jan-2026)\u00a0 Sandy avoids the word \u201caddiction,\u201d which is currently viewed by tastemakers as – yes! -stigmatizing. It\u2019s a great question.\u00a0 One that leads highly motivated activists to \u201cshare […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":934,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,22,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-professionals","category-recovery","category-training"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sobriety-together.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sobriety-together.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sobriety-together.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sobriety-together.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sobriety-together.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=933"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/sobriety-together.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":951,"href":"https:\/\/sobriety-together.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/933\/revisions\/951"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sobriety-together.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sobriety-together.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sobriety-together.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sobriety-together.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}