An honest conversation on overdose awareness
Every Overdose is a Person.
According to the CDC, over 250 individuals in New Hampshire die each year due to overdose. But these aren’t just statistics to us at Trauma Responsive Monadnock.
Every number represents a neighbor, a coworker, a son or daughter, and the life of someone who mattered. Behind every number is a story that ended too soon.
This Overdose Awareness Month, we’re focusing less on statistics and numbers and more on understanding. It’s by raising awareness and spreading a message of compassion that we believe we can cut through the stigma and shame that keep so many from asking for help.
For this month’s topic, we sat with Mary Drew and Randy Herk of Reality Check, an organization in Jaffrey that’s served the Monadnock Region since 2016 with prevention education, overdose response training, and supported referrals to treatment and recovery.
Misconceptions About Overdose & Addiction
“Stigma surrounding addiction remains a major barrier for people all over the country when it comes to asking for help. It’s never a personal or moral failing as some believe.
Many people still believe addiction is a choice. People who start using substances recreationally are exercising their choice to use and don’t plan on becoming addicted. Continued use, increased amounts, and increased frequency can increase the body’s tolerance, requiring higher and higher doses to attain the same high. Once this occurs, the body begins to manifest it physiologically as dependence, at which point the element of choice to use has been removed. This is when people need intervention and treatment to stop using.
At Reality Check, we work to raise awareness that street drugs are often contaminated with fentanyl and other substances, and that accidental overdoses happen. Part of our training reframes an overdose as a poisoning when the person was unaware their supply contained opioids.
We work to de-stigmatize the carrying of Narcan, and we encourage people to carry it for the vulnerable members of our community.”
What Role Does Trauma and Unaddressed Pain Play in Substance Abuse?
“Unaddressed or untreated pain is one of the initial factors that drove the most recent opioid crisis. This is evident in the trade industry affected the most, construction. But it’s not just physical injury and pain.
Unaddressed trauma plays a significant role in people experimenting with and abusing drugs, cementing the fact that addiction has no barriers.
Trauma and pain can compound and build as the addiction takes hold, and unintended consequences (injury, financial hardship, homelessness, divorce, children removed from the home, job loss, and accidental death) can spread outside the family and home into the larger community. Some people trade one addiction for another, whether that’s another substance, relationships, eating, or gambling. As we work to improve this, we also need to pay attention to the treatments we are using.”
What’s one thing community members can do to show more compassion to those who’ve lost a loved one due to overdose?
“Have empathy. While it can be difficult to understand all the circumstances that led to an overdose, we should always be able to empathize with loss. We will never know the impact a person had, and could have had, in their life. There should be no shame involved, just grief that can be acknowledged and then, hopefully, channeled to effect change in this world, even if it’s only in your community, your family, or yourself.”
How is Reality Check Helping Individuals and Families in Our Community?
“Reality Check’s role has expanded and shifted since we began offering services to the Monadnock Region in 2016. Today our focus is on robust prevention. We implement prevention messaging across media platforms, conduct addiction presentations and training, and offer overdose prevention training to anyone interested in learning how to administer Narcan.
Our Director of Prevention Services, Randy Herk, has been housed two days a week in the counseling department at Conant Middle-High School, where he mentors students, facilitates prevention lessons, and builds trusted relationships with youth. We’ve expanded onto the Franklin Pierce University campus as well, offering resources, referrals, and Narcan training. Agency staff continues to field calls for treatment and recovery services and make supported referrals, primarily to Cheshire Medical Center’s Doorway, which can help people find detox and treatment placements.”
For someone worried about a loved one, or struggling themselves, what’s the first step?
“Call us at 603.532.9888 or email info@realitychecknow.org. The most important step is getting Narcan, no matter what drug is being used. If a person wants treatment, we refer them to the Doorway at Cheshire Medical Center. If they’re looking for a Recovery Coach, we refer them to the Keene Serenity Center or The ARC.
Staff often just listen, dispel myths, and validate the caller’s experience by connecting with them on a personal basis. Many who are struggling know they need help and want it. It’s our job to increase access so they get the help they need.”
The Takeaway
These words are a powerful reminder that addiction is a disease, not a decision.
Stigma keeps people silent, and silence costs lives. The reverse is also true. When we lead with empathy, say a name without shame, and treat people who are struggling as real people, we make it safer for someone to reach for help.
This Overdose Awareness Month, let’s be the kind of community where no one has to hide.
Reach Out or Learn More:
- Reality Check: 603.532.9888, info@realitychecknow.org, realitychecknow.org
- Treatment placement: The Doorway at Cheshire Medical Center
- Recovery support: Keene Serenity Center, The ARC
- Free Narcan and overdose response training through Reality Check
- If you or someone you know is in crisis, the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is available 24/7 by call or text.
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