Drink and Drugs News DDN July_August 2019 | Page 6

Stigma
ANOTHER
STORY
Social media is full of stigmatising language about drug
use. We should be using powerful first-person stories to
create a more positive picture, says James Armstrong
s a charity Phoenix has been
actively using social media
for around eight years. It
offers us an opportunity to
share knowledge and
experience about drugs and
alcohol away from the sometimes suspect
agenda – or poorly informed opinions – found
within more traditional forms of media. Over
this time, we’ve developed a highly engaged
group of followers and friends, and a
compassionate community of support.
However, none of us need spend long on
social media before we encounter what
inventor of the world wide web Tim Berners-
Lee described on its 30th anniversary as the
‘unintended negative consequences of [the
web’s] benevolent design, such as the
outraged and polarised tone and quality of
online discourse’.
Often the online discourse on drugs and
alcohol is prompted by news stories that set
the tone for outrage and conflict. Just as angry
and provocative headlines stir the emotions of
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6 | drinkanddrugsnews | July/August 2019
the public in order to sell papers, there can be
a similarly attention-seeking approach online.
It’s hard to shake the underlying feeling that
this polarised online discourse of anger and
outrage is driven by stigma. So in response to
this, late last year we started to think about
how we could shed light on the stigma that is
at the root of how drugs and alcohol are
presented in British social media, and how
having a clearer idea of this could ultimately
help the sector combat it effectively.
There are various types of stigma, and all
create barriers to treatment and support. We
know that self-stigma breeds feelings of guilt
and shame in people who need help and
delays their accessing of treatment, so
prolonging harm and suffering for them and
their loved ones. Societal stigma, meanwhile,
limits access to resources such as funding for
treatment, access to jobs, homes and social
engagement, and structural stigma influences
the multiple social policies that discriminate
against the people who use our services and
their families.
Stigma has the potential to invade all
forms of social interaction because it exists,
perhaps unconsciously, in the minds of so
many people. However, people’s minds can
be changed if we start to understand how
the feelings and attitudes that lead to stigma
are formed.
Stigma can be seen as a mental short cut.
It bypasses nuanced understanding of
complex issues and, upon hearing the word
‘As people learn more they are
less likely to blame... and more
likely to seek an understanding
of the complex social drivers of
the harms of addiction...’
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