On Christmas Day, we gave rolling suitcases and backpacks to every homeless neighbor or person battling poverty that was in need at Christmas in the Park in Civic Center Park in Downtown Denver. The gifting was chaotic and hectic, and I’m not sure how many people we served. In past years, there have been over 1,000 struggling neighbors receiving gifts at this Christmas event, and the event has grown every year.
Thank you for supporting Stigma! From the donors of a single backpack, to the supporters who gave us hundreds of dollars to buy rolling suitcases and backpacks, all of you who believed in this mission helped us reach our goal of serving every single person who needed us. Thank you!
As we turn the page on the calendar, January is a big month in the fight to defeat the stigma. More people evaluate their drinking habits following the excesses of the holidays than in any other month of the year. As a high-functioning alcoholic now three years into permanent sobriety, I am painfully familiar with the mental gymnastics involved in analyzing my relationship with alcohol. Do I have a drinking problem, or am I just like everyone else – holding it together and feeling not quite right?
I have put together a seventeen question self-evaluation tool to help you or someone you love determine their drinking status. It is 100% private and confidential, and the questions are designed to lead you to a definitive course of action in the new year.
If you have questions about your own drinking, take the survey. If you are worried about a drinker you love, send him a link to these questions to help guide him to the answers he needs.
The number one key to defeating the stigma associated with alcoholism is to deal with harmful drinking with honesty and love. There is no accusation or shame in sharing this resource with your friends and family. Shame lives in standing idly by and watching someone your love destroy her life. Get involved before it is too late.
If you or someone you love has decided to remove alcohol from the equation, I hope you’ll consider our SHOUT Sobriety program to help navigate the massive challenges of early recovery. SHOUT Sobriety is Stigma’s cornerstone program, and we depend on donations from caring people like you to keep it going. For more information, to enroll or to make a donation, please click the link below.
January is all about making positive change and preparing for a successful year. There is no better time to take an honest look at our relationship with alcohol. At Stigma, we want to share what we’ve learned about evaluation of our drinking, and finding the freedom of sobriety.