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By Anna Jiang
When you get injured, medical professionals will often prescribe drug medications to relieve and ease symptoms.
However, there remains a fine line between the doses prescribed and excessive drug intake that may lead to the unfortunate outcome of addiction. These lines often get blurred when people have reputations to uphold, thus hiding the true tragedy underneath success and imagined stability.
When generalizing opioid addictions in particular, many automatically imagine the stereotypical, bustling streets of Oakland or San Francisco, large metropoles with a prominent history in drug abuse. However, what they don’t realize is that such crises might be right in front of them; affluent users only conceal it much better from the public eye when their image is at high stakes. Addiction can happen to anyone.
Stigma around opioid and other drug-related issues in affluent communities may diminish a victim’s chance at recovery due to a fear of social judgment and pressure to maintain a stable image.
Many individuals in such communities first encounter opioids through medical prescriptions. Medical professionals distributing these prescriptions work to emphasize the appropriate time frame between doses, as well as dosage amount. However, once patients start the medication, their relationship with the medication depends largely on self-responsibility. This makes observation hard and self-concealment easy.
For those with intense expectations and a high reputation to uphold, prescription opioids may provide them with temporary emotional and physical relief. Therefore, making it easier to grow reliant on these medications over time.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “anyone taking prescription opioids is at risk for unintentional overdose or death and can become addicted.”
This reinforces the universal consequences of drug abuse and how it can take root within any social class.
Affluent communities have higher access to drug abuse education because of better-funded schools and public spaces. Yet, in a contradictory manner, this creates stigma surrounding the topic.
Rhonda Wright with Stanford Couples Counseling, wrote that “fear and reputational damage” as one of the top reasons why “professionals and affluent individuals avoid seeking treatment” for opioid abuse. This reveals something profound: a conservative mindset on drug abuse may directly hinder a victim’s chances at recovery.
In other words, high-functioning addiction is real and has largely taken root in wealthy, suburban Bay Area cities.
Constant social pressures to maintain a picture-perfect image grow feelings of insecurity, discomfort, and shame – traits that already accompany addiction. As a patient’s addiction worsens, so might their self-concealment. To them, their outward displays of success mitigate the severity of their disorder and, according to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, those “who need care may [end up] not [seeking] it”.
The consequences of not acknowledging an addiction can be life-threatening. As a result of such stigma and surrounding insecurity, victims become isolated from their support systems, direct medical care, and other rehabilitation resources because they don’t give others the opportunity to intervene and help.
No matter your socioeconomic ladder, drug addiction remains universal; however, many still refuse to recognize it as such. Being honest with oneself is often the first step in recovery, but in communities where image is prioritized over vulnerability, that step can be the hardest to take.
This article was written as part of a program to educate youth and others about Alameda County’s opioid crisis, prevention and treatment options. The program is funded by the Alameda County Behavi
