Heroin Ad in St. Louis Hits Home in SoMd

Posted for Walden Behavioral Health

Dr. Kathleen O’Brien, CEO of Walden Behavioral Center, silenced The Opiate Crisis Briefing, showing a commercial sponsored by NCAAD in St. Louis that ran in St. Louis during the Superbowl.

Don’t be fooled by the address, she said, this scene is being played out across Southern Maryland in the homes of your neighbors and maybe your own.

“Addiction is a brain disease,” Dr. O’Brien told the audience into the silence following the heroin commercial. “When a person has cancer we feel empathy. When a person has a mental illness, we feel a little afraid. When a person is an addict, we feel disdain, judgement.

“What I know for sure, no one is born wanting to be an addict. It is a chronic disease, like diabetes. People relapse. And people can recover.”

To find out more about recovery and other aspects of the opiate and heroin epidemic in our community and across the nation contact Walden Behavioral Center.

24/7 Hotline: (301) 863-6661  (888) 912-7366  business line (301) 997-1300