Know what harm reduction isn’t? Palliative care. If you think it is, I’d suggest going to visit some *actual* harm reduction oriented programs in this country. (A thread) Here’s a good example: person A walks into a hybrid recovery community center. Is looking to stop intravenously using opioids and protect against contracting an infectious disease. Expresses no interest in complete abstinence nor formal treatment. (2/n)

I told crowd today that while I appreciate the applause when I said I was in recovery, that they shouldn’t be clapping. I’m not special or a modern medical marvel. I’m a product of having access to evidence-based medical care, robust community supports, & a lot of privilege (1/n) There was a lot of head nods as I asked them not to put me or my recovery on a pedastool, and more than a few shocked faces.

It is true, however, and more of us need to challenge social norms that may occur when we state our identity. (2/n)

New paper alert: Next up in our line of linguistics and stigma research, we completed a formative study into the self-labeling by individuals in SUD recovery (which labels are used, the settings, and the variation in recovery outcomes among those groups) - a thread! The pilot study examined usage of two labels (“addict” and “person with a SUD”). Participants (n = 54) used both labels at high rates (“addict”: 66.67%; “person w/ a SUD”: 38.89%), though mutually exclusive use was lower (“addict” only: 35.19%, “person w/ a SUD” only: 7.5%) - 2/n