Why Don’t We Talk About Addiction More Often?

It has been an addictive summer. Buzz Aldrin, the American hero and astronaut icon, detailed his alcoholism and subsequent life in recovery in Magnificient Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon. The coolest mommy in town, Stefanie Wilder-Taylor, author of such charmers as Sippy Cups Are Not for Chardonnay and Naptime Is the New Happy Hour, came out of the closet as—who knew?!—an alcoholic. Whoops! Eminem released his much-anticipated new album, Relapse. The Hangover was the sleeper hit movie of the season. Hell, even the economy is in “recovery.”

Of course, the propinquity of addiction was most acute in death: The summer was just getting started when we learned of the death of Michael Jackson; the summer was just ending when we learned of the death of DJ AM. Jackson seemed to exist for years on a kind of semi-permanent dreamland high before succumbing to a pernicious brew of toxins rarely seen outside of hospitals—all under the watchful eye of his personal physician. But DJ AM in many ways represents the more tangible cautionary tale. Apparently sober for 11 years, the disc-jockey superstar seemed to have beaten the demons only to meet with the unthinkable: a fatal overdose. Now that’s a potent disease.

And yet, we talk about it far less than we ought to. “If someone’s kid has cancer, they’ll talk about it; but if a kid is addicted, they’re ashamed,” said Joseph A. Califano, founder and chair of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, at this summer’s Aspen Ideas Festival, where I had a chance to talk with him. But Califano has a plan: start a cultural revolution. “AIDS was once a social curse you deserved to die for,” said Califano. But then, the medical community “educated the country in about five years. They haven’t done the same thing about substance abuse and addiction.”

So where’s the addiction quilt? The addiction ribbon? The march to fight addiction? It’s not as if the numbers aren’t there. Calling addiction the “biggest social problem of our time,” Califano dropped the statistics:

• $700 billion will be spent on diseases related to drinking and drug use this year;

• 80 percent of the people in prison were either high at the time of their crime or buying drugs;

• 70 percent of children in juvenile homes have an addicted parent;

“We are 4 percent of the world’s population,” said Califano, “and we consume two-thirds of the world’s illegal drugs.” And, while we consume, we watch—a steady diet of junkie TV with “Celebrity Rehab,” “Sober House,” “True Life: I’m an Alcoholic,” “Intervention,” “The Cleaner,” and many more on the way. Is pop culture paving the way for a recovery revolution or further stigmatizing the addict? In this blog, I’ll try to explore the nexus between substance abuse and pop culture, check out the latest National Institute on Drug Abuse studies, and write about my own experiences in sobriety.

It’s been an addictive summer. Who knows what fall will bring? Whatever it is, let’s talk about it.

Happy National Recovery Month!