Changing the Stigma of Mental Health Addiction
[Music]
my name is erica ball
i am a first generation paraguayan
american
both my parents were born and raised in
incarnation
my dad later became a doctor and my mom
worked alongside him
in his private practice i spoke spanish
before i spoke english and learned at
around age
four i went to catholic school from
kindergarten to third grade
here’s a picture there’s my mom and dad
my brother and sister
and that’s me in the middle on my
kindergarten graduation
from a very young age i can remember
being a hypersensitive child
things affected me differently than they
did other people and i learned how to
cover up those emotions
at a very early age at that age
i remember wanting to be a nun just like
my teachers in catholic school
i had no idea i would grow up
to be a person in recovery from drugs
and alcohol
otherwise known as substance use
disorder
or that fast forward to 2009 i would
find myself
sitting in the back of a police car
handcuffed and
on my way to a psychiatric hospital in
dallas texas
i had no idea that i would be treated
like a criminal
for calling a suicide hotline because i
didn’t know how to continue living
and i also didn’t want to die
i had no idea that i would be discharged
that same day
with no aftercare plan and the only
follow-up i would receive
would be a medical bill in the mail
i had some amazingly traumatic brutally
transformative
life-changing unnecessary yet totally
necessary
experiences that led me to find life and
purpose
through my recovery i’m always happy to
say
my sobriety date which is october the
3rd 2015.
i have never had a drink or a drug since
that day
also since that day i graduated with a
bachelor’s in human services and
became a drug and alcohol counselor
but my biggest achievement was meeting
and marrying my husband frank
who is also in recovery and shares the
same passion as i do
for helping others together we created
a grassroots non-profit organization
called we are those people
dedicated to changing the narrative of
addiction recovery
mental health and suicide prevention
we advocate for change
spread hope and raise awareness through
photos and film
emphasizing the positives our
accomplishments our creative talents
and the humanity that lies within us all
before i get into how we advocate for
change i would like to go over some
things that we’ve learned
about addiction
addiction is defined as a treatable
chronic medical disease involving
complex interactions among brain
circuits
genetics environment
and a person’s life experiences a person
with addiction uses substances
or engages in behaviors which become
compulsive
and oftentimes continue using despite
the harmful
consequences over 20 million americans
suffer from substance use disorder and
only 10 percent of that population
will receive proper treatment
on average drug overdoses kill
192 americans a day
unfortunately there are many barriers to
treatment
if a person is uninsured or has
inadequate
insurance they may be put on a long
waiting list
or they may be told to call a
state-funded hospital
to see if there is a bed available
on a daily basis sometimes
oftentimes insurance companies don’t pay
for long-term
treatment many people will never seek
help
and they will suffer in silence
i have learned that addiction does not
discriminate it doesn’t matter what
color your skin is
what ethnicity you are your gender or
your socioeconomic status
it could be your mother father brother
sister child in my case i was the only
person
in my immediate family that struggled
with addiction
as a result of these statistics
we have found that there are more and
more
conversations happening within families
communities and legislators there is a
documentary coming
out in the fall winter of 2020 called
people like
you directed by award-winning film
director andy capper
which centers around the
drug epidemic in the united states and
focuses on
a mother and her son as he struggles
and goes in and out of treatment it also
touches on the opioid epidemic
and you see people who are
actually suffering from substance use
disorder their families
and the people who work within the
treatment industry
it also calls attention to a petition
called
anthony’s act which was created in the
name of anthony fiore
a person a young man in philadelphia who
died
under such circumstances ex-congressman
patrick kennedy offers some possible
solutions to the epidemic
and he says that
we need a complete overhaul of the
medical system
and the way that we view mental health
and addiction i believe
that information education and knowledge
are the key elements to
initiating that change i believe that if
you
get to know people who have actually
experienced addiction and overcome
that we can begin to make a change
lonnie peterson a professional
storyteller and a psychologist
wrote an article called the science
behind
the art of storytelling she says that
scientists are discovering that there
are chemicals that are released in our
brains like cortisol
dopamine and oxytocin and these are
chemicals that are released
when we’re being told a story
storytelling is essential
if you are trying to teach engage
inspire or learn about
a subject
our nonprofit we are those people is a
platform and a safe space
for people in recovery to tell their
stories
we not only heal ourselves but we
inspire others we talk about
all pathways to recovery
and our families tell their stories
as well storytelling
helps us to learn the art of listening
it helps us to connect with each other
and to validate each other’s experience
knowing that everybody has a story to
tell
coincidentally our first story was
featured
in february in march
the uh shelter-at-home
shutdown due to covid took place
and our non-profit really took off
for example we received a message from
a friend of ours in louisiana who was a
paramedic
and who said that her job was becoming
very stressful
especially because of covid and that
reading our stories was really inspiring
her
and helping her to get through her job
we also received a message all the way
in australia
from a fellow person in recovery who
said that he had just celebrated three
years of recovery
we ended up asking him to share his
story and we featured his story on our
platform
as well we had another story i’m sorry
another message
from a person who was struggling with
addiction he said i’m an active
addiction and
i’m not able to go to my normal meetings
and i feel like i can connect when i’m
able to read some of these stories that
are on your website
and then we had us uh we had a message
from one of our featured stories jenny
who said thank you so much for this
opportunity
um it was a challenge to write my story
but
it was a good challenge and thank you so
much for this opportunity
when i got sober in 2015 i made a
promise
that if i was to survive this recovery
i would dedicate my life to making a
change
and here i am standing
giving a ted talk on a subject i had no
idea would impact my life
so deeply you see my story is not that
unique
there are millions of american of
americans living with substance use
disorder and in recovery and that’s
exactly why we should be sharing our
stories
i would like to leave you with a few
thoughts
if you are a person in recovery
or you have been affected by addiction
in some way whether it’s through a
family member or a loved one
i want to encourage you to share your
stories
i want to encourage you to be more
open-minded and extend some compassion
if you are in need of help
i encourage you to reach out there are
so many resources out there and there
are
so many people who who genuinely care
and and want to help
we cannot and should not continue to be
silent when our brothers and sisters are
dying
i urge you to be more open-minded
and extend some compassion
let’s normalize mental health we should
all have access to good treatment
mental health checkups should be
as regular as medical checkups
we should never have to reach a stage
four mental health crisis
where suicide seems like a good like the
best option
we’ve been silent long enough it’s time
to speak up
share your stories we see you
we hear you we welcome you because we
are those people
you