By LisaMarie Martinez
Decorating the house for Thanksgiving or Christmas is no longer worth the effort for one Denver mother. With an alcoholic African American spouse, she and her two children can no longer enjoy the holidays at home.
“He is an alcoholic and any excuse to drink would cause him to drink more. I stopped decorating around the holidays because he would break items, and I lost my holiday spirit because the kids were embarrassed to have him around their friends,” said the woman, who requested anonymity due to concerns about her pending divorce and her family’s safety.
While holiday celebrations often mean good food, family get-togethers, and a few holiday toasts, celebrating by abusing alcohol or drugs not only causes suffering for the individual abuser, but their family and community suffer as well.
The family is traditionally the significant focus for people of color, so substance abuse by any member can shift the focus from a joyful holiday gathering to a negative experience centered on the abuser. In essence, everyone feels the detrimental effects.
According to the Mental Health America of Colorado Web site, “Alcohol abuse can compromise personal safety, change perception and lower inhibition thereby making one more vulnerable to troublesome situations, and drug abuse may include changes in one’s overall personality; both effects can be more elevated in women than in men due to absorption rates by the body.”
“My ex-husband’s drug and alcohol abuse touched every aspect of our lives: my oldest daughter still has self-esteem issues from his verbal abuse, we lost our home, which isolated us from friends and family, and I was often depressed,” said a divorced mother of three, who also asked not to be identified due to safety concerns about retaliation from her former Native American husband.
Alcohol and drug abuse are strongly suspected to contribute to various forms of domestic violence during the holiday period, despite the lack of proof of their correlation in research.
“During the holidays, family reunions can lead to depression due to past traumatic family events, so we get more cases of people being depressed from Thanksgiving to the New Year,” said Dr. Jacques Ama Okonji, physician and forensic addiction specialist. “During the time of the holidays, it is important to recognize that the incidence of domestic violence does occur, and that those individuals who are involved in the abuse of alcohol and other substances tend to be involved in criminal activity and violence during this time, possibly due to past events or loss of employment issues.”
(Photo Dr. Jacques Ama Okonji)
Okonji is the executive director of the Community Alcohol, Drug, Rehabilitation, and Education Center (CADREC) in Denver. The center offers alcohol and drug abuse treatment on a sliding-fee scale, and refers mental health issues to mental health centers throughout the Denver metro area. While the clients are predominantly African American, it also treats Hispanics, whites, and other ethnicities.
Alcohol and substance abuse during the holidays is an issue for both genders within many communities of color, and various organizations exist to provide culturally competent prevention and treatment programs.
“We can provide individual, couples, family and group therapy. We also offer intensive outpatient treatment, and make residential rehabilitation and medical detoxification referrals,” said Kevin P. O’Brien, supervisor of the Behavioral Health Chemical Dependency Department at Kaiser Permanente in Aurora.
(Kevin P. O’Brien photo)
White Bison is an American Indian nonprofit organization based in Colorado Springs, which offers: sobriety, recovery, addiction prevention, and wellness resources to Native and non-Native people. Another American Indian organization is One Sky Center out of Oregon, which is dedicated to improving prevention and treatment of substance abuse and mental health across Indian Country.
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) of Denver provides meetings and services seven days a week and also has meetings for the Spanish-speaking population. The Colorado Department of Human Services Alcohol and Drug Abuse Division develops, supports and advocates for comprehensive services to reduce substance use disorders, including providing information on treatment and prevention services.
Despite the unfortunate consequences of substance abuse during the holidays, Dr. Okonji offered encouraging words, saying, “I want you to know that CADREC is a home of hope, in that the founder Walter Jackson, recovered from alcoholism and established this center 30 years ago, and we’re keeping his dream alive by continuing to be in the community so people can have access to drug and alcohol treatment at a reasonable rate. I want you to be supportive of people in your family who may have drug and alcohol problems, recognizing that there is life after drug and alcohol use and abuse.”
Editor’s note: Describing the ethnicity of the anonymous sources in this story does not imply a preponderance of drug and alcohol abuse in the African American nor Native American communities. They merely represent people who were willing to come forward and speak on the topic as related to communities of color.
Bee and Ruthanne, The text below should be put in a separate information box/sidebar with the story. Thanks!
Resources For Preventing and Treating Substance Abuse
CADREC: 303-295-2521, www.cadrec.org
Kaiser Permanente Behavioral Health Chemical Dependency Dept.:
303-367- 2800
White Bison: 719-548-1000, www.whitebison.org
One Sky Center: 503-494-3703, www.oneskycenter.org
AA of Denver: 303-322-4440 or 303-322-2080 for Spanish speakers, www.daccaa.org
Mental Health America of Colorado: 720-208-2220, www.mhacolorado.org
Colo. Alcohol and Drug Abuse Division: 303-866-7480, www.cdhs.state.co.us/adad
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