Meet Daniel and hear the story of how naloxone, compassion, and harm reduction saved his life–literally.
This was a picture of me on christmas 2014. i was sitting in a chair in a hotel room overdosing. realized they couldn’t wake me up and they i’ve been in recovery now for almost four and a half years. i was an iv drug user, i was a heroin user, i also used meth and crack cocaine. i ended up going to a rehab center in october
Of 2016. i went through the detox and, it being my first visit to a real treatment center, i had the idea that somehow i was cured after that detox. uh.. i met a guy who was in there also who told me that he could get a prescription of medication; we left together and within a matter of hours we were high
And when i woke up that next morning he was gone and so were all the drugs and i.. i broke down. up the phone, and the only place i could think about calling was the treatment center that i had just left–everyone had pretty much given up on me and come to terms with me dying. i imagine that get to come back, you don’t
Deserve it, you were given a shot and you blew it.. but when i picked up the phone and dialed the number this woman answered and i expected her to tell me that that i wasn’t allowed back, but instead she said i have a beautiful three-year-old girl that would not be here today if i wasn’t man she’s the light of my
Life. and to think never been narcaned. if.. if i had never been
Happy birthday to you, happy birthday
Makes me feel grateful to be given another, chance umpteen chances. it’s a life-saving tool. it’s what they call harm reduction, just as compassion is, you’re and sometimes looking at that individual and seeing where they are you can’t help but but feel judgmental but we have to look outside of that box, right? because you’re
Not just looking at an addict you’re looking at someone’s child, you’re looking at somebody’s a child’s mother a child’s father, and i’ll tell you what–they will do anything to get that person to come home. why don’t we hand out epipens? why don’t we hand out inhalers? i wish we did… maybe we will one
Day. change starts with change, changing your perception on one can then in turn help others how to get help and that isn’t the case. a lot of people before they know it they’re lost in the madness of.. of substance abuse, but that doesn’t mean that they know how to get out. we’ll continue to lose our loved ones until we
Come together, it is to give this person another chance. and if it is not to give this person another chance, if we can, if we.. if we.. if we give them their life matters; that is compassion. if this patient is sick and we give them buprenorphine it is not enabling, it is.. we are.. we are.. we are reducing the harm
That can be caused to them out in these streets, the additional trauma that they experience, we’re giving them a chance again; give them another chance, i believe in them baby it’s gonna be okay. she changed my life forever and she probably doesn’t even know it. we have to remember that addiction is a disease
And that this patient lost the choice a long time ago. so, let’s do what we can to give them that choice back. you know? let’s remind them that there are people out here who love them, and care for them, and that their life does matter. if it how addiction begins is not our choice, but we can do something about how it ends.
Transcribed from video
Naloxone Saved My Life By The Early Intervention Program