AI-Summary – News For Tomorrow
A young gay man in recovery advocates for recovery as a model for healing both individuals and a divided democracy. He shares his personal struggle with substance use, which stemmed from feeling unsafe and unaccepted, and how recovery gave him a second chance at life. He emphasizes that recovery fosters connection, inclusivity, and belonging, rebuilding a fractured society. Highlighting the need for community support, ending stigma, and implementing harm reduction strategies instead of criminalization, he also insists on focusing on effective policy solutions such as investment in community based recovery organizations, integrating recovery supports into schools, workplaces and health systems. Recovery requires civic participation and resilience, showing that everyone deserves a chance to rebuild their lives.
News summary provided by Gemini AI.
Recovery offers a blueprint for healing not just individuals, but the divisions tearing our democracy apart.
I am a young gay man in recovery from a substance use disorder. For many years, alcohol and other substances felt like the only thing that made me feel safe, seen and comfortable in my own skin. It nearly killed me, but recovery gave me my life back.
Recovery is not just a personal journey. It is a political one. It provides a roadmap for how we might mend and heal our seemingly broken democracy: people of different faiths, political parties and diverse identities sitting beside one another, offering a hand to someone in need, and saying: You got this, you are not alone. At a time when our country feels increasingly divided and many are left feeling isolated and alone, recovery offers hope, investing in one another, in community and in the belief that every person matters.
The message to me was very clear: Who I was wasn’t acceptable. … This is not just a crisis of public health, it is a crisis of democracy. A nation cannot thrive when its children are left behind.
By the time I discovered alcohol and other substances as a teenager, it felt like the only thing that made life bearable.
For a while, this gave me permission to breathe—but the relief was short lasting and eventually didn’t provide the feeling I was longing for. My life spiraled into darkness. I failed out of college, began losing relationships and ultimately felt like I was losing myself in the process.
My story is just one of millions.
This is why recovery matters now. There are many pathways to recovery, including non-abstinence based approaches. It is paramount to meet people where they are in their journey. Recovery is about connection, and it offers a roadmap for healing across differences and how to rebuild belonging and purpose in a fractured society. Recovery brings hope—not only to individuals, but to families and communities. It is a civic act that restores the very conditions that make democracy possible: participation, resilience and shared purpose and vision.
Recovery is a collective effort that doesn’t happen on its own. It requires our communities and society at large to become willing to make space for it. It means ending stigma and using person-first language that doesn’t reduce people to their illness like “addict” and “junkie.” Instead, it is recognizing substance use disorder for what it is: a medical condition that can be treated and a crisis of isolation and lack of connection that can be addressed with effective policy solutions, such as investing in community-based recovery organizations that help people rebuild their lives, integrating recovery supports into schools, workplaces and health systems and ensuring policymakers hear not only statistics, but stories of resilience, hope and redemption.
In 2012, I failed out of college with a 1.1 GPA. I thought my future was over. Today, I’m working toward my second master’s degree in addiction policy, determined to show others the limitless opportunities that recovery makes possible. No matter how dark life becomes, there is a way to move forward.
