43
Recovery leader, others say sensitivity to drug abusers is needed
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
The director of a Trumbull County agency that tries to prevent drug abuse says she agrees with a Canfield mom who has written recently that insensitivity toward addicts is harming people’s ability to overcome the disease.
Lauren Thorp, director of recovery and youth programs for the Trumbull County Mental Health and Recovery Board, says she found it difficult to listen to people joke while talking about the struggles of Jason Burns, 33, a former paralegal assistant to Warren Law Director Greg Hicks, when Burns had a drug-abuse relapse in December.
“I was appalled at some people thinking his situation was funny,” Thorp said.
Burns, of Warren and Boardman, had worked for the Warren Law Department about 18 months for about $12 an hour before relapsing in December and being arrested by Warren police for purportedly having drugs and drug paraphernalia in his coat pocket.
Hicks knew Burns had experienced earlier challenges as a drug addict but decided to “take a chance” on him because he was such a qualified and effective employee while working as an unpaid worker before getting hired.
After reporting on the arrest, including questions suggesting Burns had gotten special treatment, such as not being photographed at the Trumbull County jail, Burns’ mother, Marilyn, wrote a letter to the local news media.
She wanted the public to know that Jason’s younger brother, Chris, died of a drug overdose in 2007, and Jason recently has experienced other medical problems that may have contributed to his relapse.
“I cannot believe what a fiasco the media has made of this very painful and personal issue,” she wrote, adding that it was insensitive to publish her son’s earlier criminal convictions.
She said her son went to work Dec. 23, 2013, despite having physical pain, sleep deprivation, being high on drugs and having no car “because he didn’t have enough insight and control to stop himself.”
Hicks initially placed Jason Burns on unpaid leave, recommending that he be terminated. Burns later resigned, saying he prays that “one day, I will be forgiven for the negative attention that I brought” to Hicks.
In his resignation letter, he criticized city officials “who looked at me like I had some sort of plague,” adding: “If I have to be some sort of martyr to carry this message, then I will do so.”
In Marilyn Burns’ letter, she said the news media “missed your opportunity to show some compassion and to use my son as an example of how serious this drug can impact your life, and you missed an opportunity to tell the public that he is engaged in treatment and working so hard to live a respectful life, one day at a time.”
Thorp, who also is project director for the Alliance For Substance Abuse Prevention, said the key to having compassion for drug addicts is to understand that addiction is a disease “and not a moral weakness,” and that treatment for the disease works. “People recover.”
“If someone has diabetes and got off his insulin, he would not be fired. He would not be all over the papers. This is so sad,” Thorp said.
Drug addiction is “a chronic, lifelong disease,” but Jason proved that many people with it can still lead productive lives, she said.
“He went to law school, has a law degree. He’s very smart, obviously, and still got taken down by this disease,” she said.
Thorp said it would have been possible several years ago for some people to say they don’t know anyone who is addicted to drugs, but today that’s no longer true.
“The numbers are so high. You can’t ignore it. Everybody knows somebody. You may not even realize it,” she said, explaining that some people with a drug addiction can still maintain the appearance of normalcy until they are arrested or overdose.
One reason many people don’t get help for their addiction is because of the negative judgments many people attach to addictions, Thorp said.
“A parent is not going to seek help for their child because they’ll think, ‘What are the neighbors going to think?’ The people who do the best in recovery are the people who have the best support system,” she added.
Linda Spies, “advocate” for a Howland meeting of the organization Families Anonymous, a 12-step program that assists family members and friends of addicts, said her heart goes out to the Burns family for “this very public and painful time.”
“In active addiction, people do things that they would never consider doing in recovery. I am not making excuses for his behavior. [The] addict/alcoholic must have consequences. Did the media do more harm than good in this situation? As Marilyn said, we could have used this situation as a teaching point, instead of laying more shame and stigma on the disease of addiction. You got this, Jason!”
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, addiction is a “chronic, often relapsing brain disease that causes compulsive drug seeking and use, despite harmful consequences to the addicted individual and to those around him or her.
“Although the initial decision to take drugs is voluntary for most people, the brain changes that occur over time challenge an addicted person’s self control and hamper his or her ability to resist intense impulses to take drugs.
“Fortunately, treatments are available to help people counter addiction’s powerful disruptive effects. Research shows that combining addiction treatment medications with behavioral therapy is the best way to ensure success for most patients.”
Writer Russ Gerber, in a 2012 article in Psychology Today, declines to engage in a debate over whether drug abuse is a disease or not, saying compassion is perhaps the more important issue in viewing drug addiction.
“The significant role that compassion and other mental and spiritual qualities can play in the treatment of a host of ailments is significant, and it’s being taken seriously,” Gerber said.
“Think for a moment what you can do right now to help make this person’s life better. What words, thoughts or actions right now can help drive out a sense of despair or defeat?
“What can we say or think or do right now to promote resolve and eradicate resignation? What will help this person marshal the mental energy that feels to them like a recuperative power?”