WORDS MATTER! (Post 110)

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2018

Post 110

WORDS MATTER!
 to mask or not to mask
 to stigmatize or to bring hope

My favorite elementary school holiday was Halloween.  Why??  At lunch time, we would leave school – as our own selves - go home to eat, and then return to school as a completely different person/character/animal or thing.  We were to sit at any desk we desired – especially not our own!  That was the best part of the afternoon for me … my last name at the end of the alphabet no longer dictated a seat at the back of the classroom – for once!  

Then too, there was something liberating about being someone (or thing) other than ourselves.  For a short time (before the guess-who-this-is contest), we were, somehow, on a different planet; and there was a quasi-sense of equality among us.  Words and names do matter!

Recently, I have heard much about how words do matter … the choice of wording does, indeed, have power!  For worse, one can minimalize, magnetize, or characterize; however, for better, one can maximize care and understanding … and help others to realize, more clearly, the reality of conditions and actions taken.

The following is a list of contrasting terms – realistic and understanding as compared to inaccurate and/or demeaning.  
·       Person in active addiction or person with a gambling disorder
         not  addict, junkie, user, degenerate, addicted gambler, hopeless ____
·       Substance use disorder
not habit  (minimizes / ignores the medical nature of the condition)
·       Dependence, dependent
not abuse
·       Addiction free, substance free, or in remission
not clean, sober (clean may imply that the person active-in-addiction is dirty)
·       Person in long-term recovery, person in recovery, non-smoker
not ex-addict, former-smoker, ex-drug addict
·       Medication-assisted treatment,  treatment
not  on-methadone, Suboxone addict, replacement addiction
·       Recurrence, resumed
not lapse, relapse, slip

Once more, let us remember:                                              the choice of wording does matter –
      words can help and convey hope
 but stigma hurts and destroys.

Blessings, 
Rev. Janet Jacobs, CCGSO
Founding Director
Gambling Recovery Ministries
https://www.grmumc.org/

For more information on problem gambling and recovery issues, visit:       
                                                                                                                                                
www.indianaproblemgambling.org
www.ipgap.indiana.edu
www.mdproblemgambling.com
www.gamblersanonymous.org
www.gam-anon.org
www.kycpg.org www.pgnohio.org
www.calproblemgambling.org
www.christsd.com
www.masscompulsivegambling.org
www.mentalhealthministries.net  

Posted by Gambling Recovery Ministries at 6:36 PM