Overcoming the stigma around addiction and treatment facilities
POWELL RIVER, B.C. — Dan puts his fork down and smiles as he explains to his three lunch companions what it’s like when people learn he has an addiction.
“It’s like that scene from ‘The Elephant Man,’ where he says, ‘I am not an elephant! I am a man!’ ” says the neatly dressed retired businessman, mimicking the character’s voice from the classic 1980s film about a man shunned because of his physical deformities.
“I’m not just an addict,” says Dan, 56. “I’m a father. I’m a son. I’m a brother.”
Dan, who only wanted to be identified by his first name, was receiving treatment for substance abuse at the Sunshine Coast Health Centre. About 30 people at any given time receive care at the private, men-only residential centre near Powell River on British Columbia’s coastline.