Click below to hear Marty Boldin’s TEDx Amoskeag Millyard talk
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MANCHESTER, NH — “Addiction stigma is not innocuous,” says Marty Boldin.
He knows this from experience. He’s been in long-term recovery from addiction since 1987.
The stigma surrounding addiction affects everyone, including the professionals who work with addicts in recovery. Studies show that law enforcement and health care professionals will actually work differently and “retract” from those who are suffering with addiction, Boldin says.
More than a stumbling block on the road to recovery, stigma is the great divide; one for which we’ve yet to find an honest or effective way to get over.
It is the stigma around addiction that often gets in the way in communities, like Manchester, where treatment and recovery programs are sorely lacking.
Back in November Boldin was asked to participate in a TEDx Amoskeag Millyard event at Southern New Hampshire University, built around the theme of evolution.
“Most of the people who spoke at the TEDx event spoke about personal evolution. When they first asked me to participate, I think what they wanted to hear was the story of my addiction — and how I finally got sober,” says Boldin.
But when you tell that kind of story, the focus is on the substance use part of the story.
“People figure a miracle happens and then you get this new life. The reality is the substance use part is not nearly as important as the recovery part. There are 23 million people living in recovery in this country, and if those people coalesced, they could have a powerful voice in the recovery movement,” says Boldin.
But the unfortunate truth is that it is stigma that keeps people from stepping out from the shadows of their past so they can speak out loud about life after addiction, without shame.
“Substance misusers are average Americans. They aren’t whatever stigma you think they are. They are your neighbor, the person teaching your kid, your business associate, the person you play tennis with,” says Boldin. “They are me.”
Four of every 10 people around us either have direct experience with substance misuse or recovery.
“Holding on to this stigma is preventing us from seeing the solution in front of our faces. How many have a loved one who gets impacted by substance misuse, yet don’t know who to call or talk to, or where to get help? That’s an especially painful reality, if the person next door has been sober for 10 or 20 years, and nobody knows it,” Boldin says.
Last year Boldin left his job as Director of the City of Manchester Office of Youth Services after 1o years, to accept a Dean’s Fellowship and become a PhD student at the Boston University School of Social Work.
Boldin’s research is focused on the impact of trauma and addiction stigma on those in long-term recovery. Many of these people live in silence, and in that silence, they find themselves excluded from public discourse on addiction remedies, says Boldin.
It confounds Boldin that there is not more action from state officials in support of community recovery centers, like Hope for New Hampshire Recovery in Manchester, which is built on a model of success using peer-to-peer recovery. It has been made possible through primarily private funding, even as New Hampshire sits on a $62 million surplus.
It further confounds Boldin that lawmakers in Concord have, year over year, voted not to fully fund the designated Alcohol Fund — a law calling for a mere 5 percent of profits on state alcohol sales to go toward recovery. Full funding would triple the amount of money currently available for services, and could also help fulfill the current unmet need for a trained workforce to provide those services.
It all comes back to stigma, and a lack of understanding about addiction.
Meanwhile, the death toll in Manchester from heroin and fentanyl continues to rise.
“Let me put it to you this way: God forbid there was a tsunami that hit Hampton Beach that killed 300 people. We’d have Red Cross and FEMA here in an instant, thinking about how to mobilize resources. Being prepared for such disaster is of such importance to us as a state that there are regular meetings on disaster preparedness, and mobilizing response teams,” says Boldin.
“The perception is there that if a person is hit by a tsunami, it’s not their fault. Meanwhile, the perception with substance misuse is that a person is inflicting harm to themselves, and that doing so is a matter of choice,” Boldin says.
And one reason that misinformation exists is because there are a significant number of people making significant amounts of money off our state’s substance abuse problem, Boldin says.
“A report put out about 10 years ago determined the profit margins made by alcohol companies is approximately equal to the same amount they make from beer sales to underage and problem drinkers,” Boldin says.
If something doesn’t change soon, Boldin says the annual body count associated with addiction will no longer make headlines.
“By next year, if this many people are still dying from heroin, it won’t be a news story anymore; it will just the new normal,” Boldin says. “We have a limited period where political will and political capital come together to change lives and put a system in place to make a long-term difference,” he said.
“Someone once told me if you want to see a program go away, just start defunding it. Before long, it then becomes a bridge too far. What’s needed is investment in recovery centers around the state, and developing protocols for recovery-friendly workplaces. It’s not too late, but I have to stop sometimes and ask myself what is taking us so long to understand this,” Boldin says. “And for many reasons, it comes right back to stigma.”
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