“Where do you work?” a stranger usually asks soon after they meet you.  In the beginning, I felt the need to explain myself.  “I work for the Foundation for Recovery… but I’ve never done drugs or alcohol in my life” I would say in my defense—a disclaimer of sorts. “Not even once,” I would tell them.

Every time I answered that question I carried the weight of the stigma.  I was scared—fearful that I would wear the face of addiction in the eye of the beholder.  Would I become an addict in the eyes of a perfect stranger?

I don’t know and I don’t care anymore.

I am, however, sure that my own eyes have since been opened.  Even though I have never used, I now see an opportunity to reduce stigma and educate my peers about recovery every time a strangers asks me where I work.  The truth is that they don’t stay strangers for very long; recovery brings people together.

The Foundation for Recovery and I still have a lot of work to do.  There are still some people in recovery living in the shadows of shame and there are still many suffering addicts without the resources and support that they need to become autonomous.  I rest assured, however, that together we will able to create a paradigm shift in the consciousness of our society and strip recovery of its stigma and negative connotation, one introduction at a time