An African American female friend called me and said she relapsed recently. I immediately thought of the words of African American tennis star, the late Arthur Ashe, who contracted HIV through a blood transfusion.. A reporter asked Ashe, “Was Aids the hardest thing you ever had to deal with?” Ashe replied, “The hardest thing I have ever had to deal with is being Black in this society.”
Thinking of Ashe's comments, the trauma my friend has endured in her lifetime and her resilience, I said to her, “You have handled being a Black Woman in America. You will handle this too!”
I listened as my friend shared what led to her return to drug use and we also discussed language. I introduced her to the term reoccurrence of symptoms as an alternative to the term relapse. The term relapse is perceived as negative. Cancer patients don't relapse I suggested, symptoms return. I shared that Women for Sobriety calls a relapse A temporary setback! I shared with my friend the words of writer Johann Hari, “The opposite of addiction is not recovery. Its connection.
My friend smiled and said, I'm going to a meeting today.