After addiction ends, stigma often lingers

YOUNGSTOWN

The stigma of drug addiction can be as powerful as addiction itself.

Several people who have struggled with drug addiction agreed to be interviewed and photographed for this series.

Ultimately, however, those who were included in today’s story would only speak on the condition of anonymity despite their passionate desire to share their stories.

That condition partly is based on fear that attaching their name and face to addiction will impact their personal lives and families.

The woman identified as Christina in today’s story believes that the stigma of addiction is one of the roots of the epidemic.

“The stigma is what is killing people. Because people are afraid to speak up,” she said. “It’s ridiculous how fearful people have to be for help.”

Some Valley families who recently lost loved ones to addiction are speaking up.

Jennifer West Roupe, whose daughter, Cassandra West, 19, committed suicide April 6 after a battle with drug addiction, has called for the community to help instead of judge.

“The judging has to stop. The whole community has to stop judging these kids,” she said. “Or turning their backs and saying, ‘Oh, it’s happening because they chose to do drugs.’”

“I am not embarrassed of my child. I am not ashamed of my child. I am not disappointed in my child. This happened for a reason, for my child to save someone else’s child,” she said.

Donald and Lorie LoGiudice, whose son, Donny, 28, died April 2 from a heroin overdose, stated in Donny’s obituary the cause of his death and have called on other families to do the same.

“I think people should start putting that in [the obituary], whether it’s their spouse or child or husband or whatever, so that people become aware of how much damage this is doing to our society,” Donald said.

“All these people that are dying from drugs, they’re not bad people. You’ll find out, they’ve just got a monster on their back that they can’t handle,” he said.

One local organization dedicated to dealing with addiction, Solace of the Valley, has been outspoken about the associated stigma.

Its three founding members have family members who are or were addicts. They recognize the difficulty families face, they say, but encourage openness, honesty and recognition that addiction is a disease, not a disgrace.

“We need to remove the stigma. We need to pull this problem out of the shadows,” said executive director Linda Spies.

“We’re allowed to talk about this,” said president Eric Ungaro.