I have the desire to share my past substance use and addiction history with the motive of contributing to breaking the societal stigma of addiction recovery. More specifically breaking the stigma of a -woman- in addiction recovery. And what this actually means. I became so passionate about doing something…***anything*** to show or explain through my experience that there is a way out for a woman with limited resources, or at the very least, be heard by a woman who is struggling to make the financial means to survive in early recovery.
Many women are very limited in resources when in early recovery from substance use even though society claims that there are a multitude of services available to them.” This I have found from personal experience to be false and society’s resources for women in recovery are indeed scarce.
For this reason, I thought that it would be really helpful for Horticulture For Healing to act as a reference for women when searching for employment when in treatment residency or transitional housing and after. I remember not having any references to put down on my applications. I felt shame, embarrassment, and fear. Sometimes I went even as far as making up a name or phone number just to not leave the lines blank.
I dedicated my graduation project and final paper to this subject. I needed to gain further insight and understanding as to what exactly stigmatization is and how it affects women who are recovering from substance use.
The societal stigmatization of women in relation to addiction and recovery, effects not only their potential to stay in recovery, but creates barriers that keep a woman from reaching life and societal milestones.
When one enters recovery, this often includes reintegration into society following many challenges, including surviving economically and socially. (Stringer and Baker, 2017). Entering recovery as a woman versus an individual of the opposite sex is more challenging due to the specific societal stigmatization and gender roles against women who formerly were addicted to substances. These barriers exist on all levels. You can read about some of them from my personal experience on our Meet the Founder page.
For anyone who would like to dig further this is a PDF link to my graduation research paper.