This past Tuesday night, a small crowd, including members of the local Farmville community, Longwood faculty, and Longwood graduate and undergraduate students, gathered in the Hull Education Center’s auditorium for a screening, and later, a discussion, of the film “The Anonymous People.”
The documentary was released earlier this year and addressed alcoholism and addiction in the United States. Dr. Kevin Doyle, assistant Professor for Counselor Education, began the night by focusing on the importance of recovery in higher education, highlighting the collegiate recovery program, which provides a community on college campuses for positive, open support for individuals recovering from substance abuse and addiction.
The film would, as Doyle put it, “begin and continue the conversation around recovery and to try to help de-stigmatize the thinking as a nation about people who are recovering from addiction … and the contributions they can make.”
The film outlined the history this country has of demoralizing those suffering from addiction and its direct impact in our society; public perception shaping public policy.
The Reagan administration undercut efforts to strengthen recovery advocacy by antagonizing drug users in his zero tolerance draconian drug war. This criminalization of drugs leads those suffering from addiction to prisons rather than to rehabilitation, ignoring the reality of the disease that is addiction.
Health care for addiction, according to the film, should be treated just as any other disease. A particularly impactful comparison was made between diabetes and addiction.
When a diabetes patient comes to the hospital having over done it with their insulin or sugar intake they are treated and then held until they are well.
Whereas an addict in the hospital, having relapsed, is thrown back to streets just as soon as whatever aide hits his blood stream. The film calls for action, calling out a culprit: anonymity.
Programs like Alcoholics Anonymous are revered for the community and support they provide people. The “Anonymous” in Alcoholics Anonymous is to provide a safe space for members to share freely.
“The Anonymous People” does not take issue with this form of spiritual anonymity, which is held sacred in the context of recovery. It instead takes issue with the idea that this anonymity be used to further quiet the sharing of the success of recovery.
“Can you appropriately disclose your recovery status, and what is the value of that?” Dr. Doyle asked in his preface to the film.
The value, the film illustrated, is the hope of recovery, one story, one success, can spark. It encourages celebrities and people in communities, if they can, to tell their success story and reach out to the millions suffering.
Dr. Doyle’s graduate students led the discussion after the film, particularly focusing on the connotations of words like addict, user and recovery, and the repercussions and implications they can have on the outlook and success of continued recovery.
