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Battling the Opioid and Substance Abuse Epidemic

Can we truly overcome addiction?

By Alex McGowanPublished 6 years ago 3 min read
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Before I graduated college, I had no idea what I was going to do with my life. I only figured out my next steps the Wednesday before graduation which was the following Saturday. That Wednesday was the day that I received the job offer. A job offer with a salary much lower than I was expecting but in the field I had and have a passion for. You do not do counseling for the money, but that is a story for another time.

So the Wednesday before graduation, I received a job offer as a substance abuse counselor working with women on probation. My job description is to help women with varying substance use disorders overcome their addiction and learn life skills to take with them into the real world. My job is to aid the clients in coming to terms with the damage they caused to themselves and others with their substance use, to help them put their past behind them, and to help them build a new life from the ground up.

Honestly, I did not know what I was getting myself into when I accepted the job. All I knew was that I was one of the lucky ones to even have a job immediately after graduating college and even luckier for it to be in the field I wanted to work in. I walked into my job on the first day terrified, unsure of what to expect. I had never been around people who used hard core drugs before then.

As the weeks passed by, I found myself realizing that these women were just like any other person. They just made different decisions and made bad mistakes. As I acquainted myself with my job and the women I would be working with, I learned more about the substance use epidemic. It is bigger than I ever thought it was. I learned so much about myself as well. I learned that I was very sheltered growing up that I had not really seen all aspects of life.

After five months of working as a substance abuse counselor, I can honestly say that defeating the opioid epidemic and substance abuse epidemic is a task far bigger than one person can tackle. It takes multiple people to do it. Do I believe that I will see the epidemic defeated in my lifetime? No. However, I do believe I can make a difference even if it is in just one of my client's life. The battle is not won all at once. It is won one person at a time.

I am not going to lie. Sometimes, the job is unforgiving and draining. Some days I feel like giving up, curling up in a ball, and never leaving my bed again. But doing so would allow it to defeat me. Doing so would mean disappointing my clients who deserve all of my help and compassion that I have. The fact of the matter is that no matter how beaten down I get by failures and bogged down with paperwork I get, I still have it better off than these women who struggle to not take pills or shoot up heroin.

I listen to these women's stories. I learn about their families. I talk to them about their fears and their biggest dreams. I offer them comfort in times of need. I provide guidance in times of desperation and confusion. And while it may not seem like much towards battling the epidemic... it paves the path at the very least. I can live with the low salary, the backlog upon backlog of paperwork, and the exhaustion if it means that I make even a small wound in the enemy of substance use.

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About the Creator

Alex McGowan

I love words and stringing words together to form something beautiful. I love the way words can create worlds, portray beauty, and instill knowledge.

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