Pubdate: Fri, 11 Jun 2004 Source: Worcester Magazine (MA) Copyright: 2004 by Worcester Publishing Ltd Contact: http://www.worcestermag.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2124 Author: Beverly Conyers Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v04/n800/a09.html LEARN AND SUPPORT While I commend your efforts to call attention to the challenges faced by families of addicts (WM, City Desk / "A new drug to end drug abuse" and Cover Story / "Addict in the family," May 27), your coverage seemed to reinforce the stigma of addiction rather than offer a helpful perspective. When a loved one becomes addicted to alcohol or other drugs, families experience grief and desperation. They want to help, but their efforts may only make the problem worse. What's more, while addiction has long been recognized as a disease, it carries a stigma that leads many families to suffer in silence. Addiction -- an obsessive/compulsive disorder linked to chemical changes in the brain -- is one of the few diseases that continue to provoke an attitude of shame and blame. Families of addicts need all the help they can get. They need support from groups such as Al-Anon and Nar-Anon (please note the following correction: Narcotics Anonymous is a mutual-support group for individuals seeking recovery from substance abuse. Nar-Anon -- the meetings I attended -- is a mutual-support group for families of substance abusers). They need to learn everything they can about the disease from reliable sources. They need to learn how to establish boundaries and to offer encouragement without enabling and to work on their own personal growth. Finally, families and their addicted loved ones need support from communities that are fully committed to the prevention and treatment of substance abuse. Addiction can strike any family. It is in everyone's best interest to work toward public policies that remove the stigma and make effective treatment more widely available. It is a community-wide approach that offers the best hope for eradicating what one writer called "this modern-day plague of addiction." Beverly Conyers