Appreciating contributions more than celebrating resilience: Reflections on the disclosure of substance use in Appalachia.

Abstract

Disclosure of personal substance use often places people who use drugs (PWUD) at risk, both personally and professionally. Yet disclosure can positively influence governmental and organizational policies as well as improve programs meant to serve PWUD. Through numerous autobiographical conversations, six researchers and professionals in their thirties and forties who live in the Appalachian region of the United States examined what it meant for us to discuss our illicit substance use publicly. We examined the limitations of the term "lived experience" and detailed our non-problematic use. Most of us have, at times, experienced negative consequences of substance use, but these consequences are as tied to society's negative responses to substance use as to use itself. When disclosing use, we have often found that others are keen to portray PWUD as resilient, but are less willing to highlight the contributions of PWUD while they are using. We agree that making disclosure more acceptable as well as acknowledging the positive aspects of drug use would alter societal responses to use to be more effective at preventing harm. We conclude by highlighting societal and institutional policy changes that will increase the ability of PWUD to openly disclose use.