Shame stops people getting help for addiction
PETE Yarwood believes ‘shame’ and ‘stigma’ is preventing people in Accrington from getting help for their cocaine addiction.
He said: “Because it has this perception as a glamorous drug when it grabs hold of you and starts to manifest real problems, you are less likely to want to seek help and support because you’ll lose that perceived status you are aiming for.
“Addiction grows in the darkness and feeds off things like shame.”
Mr Yarwood also believes part of the problem is a stigma among addicts.
He said: “In our local treatment services people are addicted to various substances, be it alcohol or heroin.
“These are the people seen as down and outs. Then you have people on cocaine who think ‘I am an upstanding member of society, functioning, and I know I’ve got a bit of a problem, but am not I going to walk through the door of that treatment centre’. There is a stigma within addicts that prevents people from getting treatment.
“People say ‘I might be sniffing some coke but that’s not as bad as heroin addicts’. But they are failing to grasp is that it doesn’t matter what substance you are using, it’s that you’re using and you’re an addict.
“That attitude brings danger to your health and people around you.
“It’s family who often go through heartache because they don’t know how to handle it.”
Red Rose, which was founded in Accrington, is active in the community, making links and building projects for recovery community involvement inclusive of families, carers and the wider community.
Mr Yarwood said Red Rose Recovery has trained hundreds of coaches in Lancashire to work with people who have issues accepting their addiction.
He said: “My job takes me all over the country and I would hold up local treatment as the best in UK. We are the forerunners.
“It’s a complex problem and there is such a diverse treatment on offer now. There are many options they can go through. There’s the clinical treatment and then there’s us. We are a midpoint allegiance to the community and the services: a bridge to normal living.”
The Hyndburn branch is based on Eagle Street in Accrington and can be contacted on 01254 879966.