Substance Use Disorder and the Stigma That Surrounds It
Samantha Tshudy
I wrote this paper in Wes Mantooth’s English 102 class. It is about
addiction and the stigma that surrounds it. This is a very personal
subject for me. One of my sons is a recovering drug addict, and his
journey through addiction, along with mine, has opened my eyes to the
complexity of a disease that has taken the lives of a half a million people
in the last decade.
…TAKE TIME OUT
When you see her walking
Barefoot in the rain
And you know she’s tripping
On a one-way train
You need to ask
what’s all the
lying and the
dying and
the running and
the gunning all about.
TAKE TIME OUT.
Use a minute
Feel some sorrow
For the folks
who think tomorrow
is a place that they
can call up
on the phone.
Take a month
and show some kindness
for the folks
who thought that blindness
was an illness that
affected eyes alone.
If you know that youth
is dying on the run
and my daughter trades
dope stories with your son
we’d better see
what all our
fearing and our
jeering and our
crying and
our lying
brought about.
TAKE TIME OUT…
—from Maya Angelou’s poem
“Take Time Out”