Ryan Caldwell is a peer support specialist in long-term recovery, working for the Restorative Management Corporation and involved with the HEALing Communities Study. In this video, Ryan talks about overcoming addiction.
Video length: 1:29
Transcript
Ryan speaking:
I've known so many friends and people that I grew up with that have passed away and even most recently my father passed away from an overdose in April. So, you know, it's always been like right there in my face and I was fortunate to overcome, it could have been me any one of those times. But I was having a conversation with a friend and we were talking about stigma and the thing we were talking about is like some people are so... They're like shamed out of asking for help. Like my one friend, in particular, he had a full-time job, had a nice car, he had a good girlfriend but he injected heroin every day and I was clean and I was trying to get him help and his response was always yes, but I'm not like that, I've still got all my stuff. I've still got my job like it's not that bad, it's not that bad, it's not that bad. And one day he did too much and he didn't wake up and he's gone now. It can really happen to anyone, it doesn't matter.