This Week In Harm Reduction: Self Care or Self Harm

Hello Readers:
I am trying a new format for a few months. I hope you will enjoy it.

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity. Being on the Today Show completely blew up my spot. Thank you to Jamie from Next Distro and Matt from Rebel Recovery Florida for helping me keep up with requests. More and More, my work is focusing on expanding a network of folks who want to do what I do- a mail based system to get harm reduction supplies to those who have no access. In the past few weeks, I answered thousands of messages and comments to the point I have some kind of stress related shoulder injury. I am excited that so many people wanted to weigh in on their love for people who use drugs and the need to expand services that help them. There were minimal shitty comments which is pretty unheard of when it comes to these topics. THAT gives me hope.

I love the fact that so many of you are just doing the damn thing. Passing on naloxone. Handing out syringes. You don't need a program and I love you for it. Take a box of syringes down to a homeless encampment. They will get to the right place. We are in this lifeboat together, fighting for our lives and the lives of people we love.

In the personal news, I'm trying to get my program of self care back on line. I'm a person with a long history of self harm as a coping mechanism. Cutting, eating disorders, and dysfunctional relationships have always been my go to when I am stressed. I am working away from my natural instincts and sitting with my feelings. I am not sure if I have mentioned it here but I started going back to 12 step meetings last year. It seems to be helping some. I am making a few new friends, which was desperately needed. I ignore any kind of cultish elements to focus on the positives, I also make sure to advocate for MAT and being accepting of those who are not abstinent at meetings I attend. Next year, I might not be interested but for now, I am trying this out again.

I have an event coming up at art primo in SF on July 13th. I'll be doing overdose education in cooperation with Remio's art show.

I'll be in West Chester Ohio July 5th at 7pm at the Mid Pointe Library

I also have a book reading next week outside of Monterey on the 28th of June.

Got all my health screenings today: HIV test, cholesterol, weight, iron, pap smear. 



Please excuse typos because I'm a hot mess.

Comments

  1. UnknownApril 15, 2019 at 10:34 PM

    I lost contact with the diabetic I knew and I can't find any local pharmacies that will sell syringes because last year I was passing out needles as much as possible in Adams and Brown county Ohio. Do you think of I try to buy them in Cincinnati pharmacies they would let me?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Black Tar Heroin 10 questions answered

Image
I want to get this in one place. Here you go When was the film made? The film was made from Dec 1995 to Dec 1997. Originally the film was supposed to be for one year but I believe when HBO picked up the film they wanted two years. How were you picked for the film? Steven met a bunch of different people at the youth needle exchange. He wanted subjects that were slightly younger than me. He filmed a few other people  that never made it into the final film Were you paid for the film? No. I was not paid for the film. he bought me a hotel to stay in for a week and bought me lunch a few times. I think they left some money for me when I was in jail too. Documentary film makers, in general, don't pay their subjects. Was I friends with the other people from the film ? Sort of. I never knew Alice. I met Oreo when he was 15 or 16. He was VERY young when the film was made. His mom used to work the desk in one of the hotels I lived in. Jake and I used to hang out. At one point h...
Read more

Ben (revised)

Image
Ben was heroin addled fantasy from a time when I would rather be with someone that barely loved me than be alone. I had just been released from jail after six long months. I had been using in the jail up until the last 45 days. This is did not give me much time to construct any type of recovery. I had spent most my time of planning for things that would never happen. My first week in jail was spent recovering from surgery. When I was arrested, I had four large abcesses. An abcess is a place where bacteria gets under the skin and the flesh starts to rot. I had to have surgery on my arm. When I took of the bandage, I cried. Not because I was in the hospital, not because I was in jail. I cried because they had sliced open my tattoo! The horror of it all. I used to take a sterile needle and cut them open myself. Needless to say, my nickname was the abcess queen. When I was back on the streets, I felt hopeless. I gave up my homeless encampment living for a hotel with some financial ...
Read more

Things people do not tell you about heroin

Image
1. Chinga babies- after you have been hooked on opiates for any period of time, you can no longer poop well on your own. When you enter a period of sickness, you may give "birth" to a chinga baby. This is when you suddenly have to poop and an enormous hard poop the length of your colon decides to come out an an inopportune time tearing apart your booty.  2. Coagulated blood hits- when you cannot find a vein, you may put a syringe clogged with blood and dope to the side. At some later time, a few hours or even a day down the road, you may rethink that hit. I have taken the liquid out, picked out the clots and stuck that right back in my arm. I also did a few of Ben's coagulated blood hits. Ahhh love!  3. Impotence- Shhh. It's a secret unless you have ever fucked a male addict. After awhile, things do not work in the nether regions. Unless they take a hit of crack or speed. Then, he is too busy looking for white specs on the carpet to get busy.  4. No periods. Yes ladie...
Read more