“Shit. They’ll never know. They will never know that it was an accident. I would never do this to them.”
-Drowning in Madagascar
“Dead Man, Dead Man Come Alive when you count to five….”
I feel that I should write a moderate disclaimer. As the title of this post insinuates, this video link contains mature subject matter, that I will write about in the chapter entitled Come Alive, in my debut Memior, Drowning in Madagascar. I openly discuss the devastating repurcussions of the isolation, shame, and exclusion that I suffered as a result of my illness. And while I should emphasize that the hostility I faced was in no way indicative of the vast majority of my extended family as a whole, the sobering reality of our world today is that it did not matter. The results were the same. Shock value is still widely used and accepted in our society as a tool of reform. Because Addiction and Substance Abuse Disorders are family illnessess, with devastating results due to our impulisivity and poor judgment, our deduced lack of reasoning, punishment as a tool of reform is still utilized as a “tough love” approach. I cannot emphasize this enough. Isolation and Shame will never bring about true reform. It will never facilitate wholeness. The scars I carry to this day as a direct result of trauma sustained from emotional and psychological abuse linger.
This video has been a call to Action. If you have loved ones in your life who struggle with the devastating illness that is Addiction and Substance Abuse Disorder, do not make the conscious choice to leave them to their own defenses.
Drowning in Madagascar 
One Reply to “”