this post was submitted on 20 Dec 2023
35 points (68.8% liked)

Health - Resources and discussion for everything health-related

2343 readers
77 users here now

Health: physical and mental, individual and public.

Discussions, issues, resources, news, everything.

See the pinned post for a long list of other communities dedicated to health or specific diagnoses. The list is continuously updated.

Nothing here shall be taken as medical or any other kind of professional advice.

Commercial advertising is considered spam and not allowed. If you're not sure, contact mods to ask beforehand.

Linked videos without original description context by OP to initiate healthy, constructive discussions will be removed.

Regular rules of lemmy.world apply. Be civil.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Eleven years ago, two days before Christmas, my 24-year-old brother, who was a university graduate and former law student, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. After a decade of hard and continuous drinking interspersed with addiction and mental health treatment, he could not sustain his recovery. His suicide came on the heels of my mother’s death a year before, and just weeks later, my grandfather died in a car accident. My family’s holidays would never be the same.

Like so many others who survived the loss of someone dear from the chaos of severe substance use disorder (SUD), I am too familiar with unspeakable grief. But I have found meaning through it and purpose in passing that on.

I was a medical resident when I dropped my brother off at an addiction treatment facility for the first time. Later, I became an addiction specialist physician, focusing on treating people with SUD and helping them manage their disease and find remission and recovery. My work has taught me something important: To help stop the addiction crisis that has brought so much sorrow to families like mine, policymakers must prioritize prevention at all levels and support evidence-based prevention initiatives — including raising federal excise taxes on alcohol.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] RainfallSonata@lemmy.world 65 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (8 children)

"My brother killed himself after self-medicating with alcohol for a decade in order to cope with horrific systemic social ills. So instead of fixing those, we need to make it harder to self-medicate. He probably would have just killed himself sooner. But at least he wouldn't have been a drunk for 10 years!"

[–] Fiivemacs@lemmy.ca 10 points 11 months ago (7 children)

Alcohol isn't self medication though...it's a coping mechanism and furthers depression. But yes, this section. Also caught my eye while skimming

[–] Chetzemoka@startrek.website 11 points 11 months ago

"Self-medication" is a synonym for maladjusted coping mechanisms. It's a euphemism. They used the term correctly.

load more comments (6 replies)
load more comments (6 replies)