Addiction kills daily! It’s is life threatening. If we look just at anorexia, it has the largest death rate amongst all mental illness. With only a 5% recovery rate.
When clients walk into our doors, their bodies are shutting down. Our alcoholic and substance dependent clients bodies are compromised, suffering from withdrawal, taking detox medication to stop seizures and in extreme cases medically detoxing in our private hospital in order to monitor any organ failure. This is the gravity of the illness of addiction.
The world is coming to a standstill as we face this pandemic of COVID-19. Trust me it has me scared, I’m a mom of three, one little one who is only 8 weeks old. It has me worried about my mom who only two years ago survived a quadruple bypass. It hasn’t even hit our little town yet. But people are also dying from addiction.
What can we learn? Fear is debilitating and at the same time motivating.
Where the question in my mind lies is buying stock, sanitizers and loo rolls really what we need to be motivated to do. My answer would be we should be motivated right now to live every day to its full. To love those who we love, to enjoy our friends, to see and feel every moment that we are presented with.
Today our clients went stand up paddling at the most beautiful lagoon in Plett. It is one that I frequent regularly with my kids. The sand banks white, the water clear, the ocean smell penetrating. Sand sharks, sea horses, star fish, seals all beautifully sharing this space with us. As we appreciate the beauty that nature, that Plett offers us. That life offers us.
We need to live each day as if it were our last because we never know when our time will come.
We need to enjoy every moment.
We need to see all that is around us.
We need to love those who love us.
Addiction kills. We can survive. We can live.
For all those who have lost someone or know someone affected by this virus and this illness, our thoughts go out to you.
