USA. SAMHSA - Combatting Stigma with Knowledge
USA. SAMHSA - Combatting Stigma with Knowledge
Substance Use Disorders (SUDs) are chronic disorders of the brain with a risk of recurrence but from which people can, and do, recover. Like other medical conditions, some people are more susceptible to developing a SUD than others. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) National Survey on Drug Use and Health, only about 25 percent of people who had used alcohol and illicit drugs within the past year met the criteria for a SUD diagnosis.1 For this subgroup of people, the brain disease model underscores the brain changes that happen with SUDs and that drive a person to continue using substances despite all the negative consequences and harms that follow.
For countless generations, however, people with SUDs have been subjected to a false social belief, or stigma, that their use of substances and its consequences were a result of their moral failings or lack of willpower. This stigma impacts their lives – resulting, for some, in loss of child custody, loss of employment, and incarceration rather than treatment. (SAMHSA – Substance Use and Mental Health Services Administration, USA, 14.01.2025)