Trey Kay, Todd Melby Published

Us & Them: The Stigma of Sobriety

Rita Crisafi
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America has faced a pandemic, a polarizing election and racial equity battles in the past year. But there’s been another crisis continuing to fester — the opioid epidemic. Deaths are up with more than 1,200 West Virginians dying from overdoses last year. The fight for sobriety now deals with its own tragic divide — When is someone sober?

The road to recovery comes in many forms. For some abstinence works. But others, especially those addicted to opiates, find they need help to get off of such powerful drugs. For their recovery they turn to medication-assisted treatment. That approach has split the treatment world and created a stigma around sobriety.

This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, the CRC Foundation and the West Virginia Humanities Council.

Subscribe to Us & Them on Apple Podcasts, NPR One, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher and beyond. You also can listen to Us & Them on WVPB Radio — tune in tonight, June 24, at 8 p.m., or listen to the encore presentation on the following Saturday at 3 p.m.

Clarksburg Mission Window

Trey Kay
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The Clarksburg Mission is a Christian-centered treatment facility located in Clarksburg, W.Va. that supports people in either abstinence-based or medication assisted substance use disorder recovery.
Jesus Saves - Photo

Trey Kay
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The neon cross outside the Clarksburg Mission delivers a simple, straightforward message as to the spiritual underpinnings of their recovery program.
Lou Ortenzio - Photo

Trey Kay
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Lou Ortenzio is executive director of the Clarksburg Mission, Clarksburg, W.Va.
Melissa Carter - photo

Trey Kay
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Melissa Carter is recovery coach here at the Clarksburg Mission in Clarksburg, W.Va.
Angela Knight - Photo

Trey Kay
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Angela Knight is a program manager at the Clarksburg Mission, Clarksburg, W. Va.
James Berry - Photo

Jennifer Shephard/Jennifer Shephard
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West Virginia University
Dr. James Berry, Director of WVU Medicine’s Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship
Gabriella&Sid.jpeg

Gabriella Dahalia-Jarrett
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Gabriella Dahalia-Jarrett with her “murphing” dog Sid.