Addiction

Addiction 

Addiction, or Substance Use Disorder (SUD), is as much of a public health issue as it is a mental health issue. SUD is incredibly stigmatized in today’s society. Within the United States, people are quick to dismiss a struggling substance user as a “good-for-nothing druggie”, when in reality, they need support for recovery. Stigma is even more apparent when viewed from the lens of racial disparity. For example, the opioid crisis was only relabeled as an epidemic once it began to affect white suburbia. Additionally, the NAACP Criminal Justice Fact Sheet reports that African Americans make up 5% of illicit drug users, but 33% of those incarcerated for drug-related crimes. This difference highlights the larger issue of racial disparity in the United States.

            In Ghana, SUD (and mental illness as a whole) are viewed as a religious or spiritual problem rather than a medical or psychological one. Instead of treating mental illness in a hospital or therapeutic setting, the Ghanaian population, which is predominantly Evangelical, will often send loved ones to prayer camps, to be healed through prayer and/or fasting. According to Eugene Dordaye at Johns Hopkins University, “alcoholism is believed to be caused by a gourd placed in one’s belly; hence people drink and never get filled.” This belief is harmful to those living with SUD, but, as others have pointed out, treatment in non-Western countries must follow the culture and customs of those places, so treatment must be adapted to these beliefs in order to be effective. 

            Yaa Gyasi’s Transcendent Kingdom discusses addiction in the context of a first-generation immigrant family from Ghana. The protagonist, Gifty, loses her brother, Nana, to a heroin overdose when he was 11. The novel follows Gifty and her mother’s responses to this tragedy through lenses of religion, love, and academia. Transcendent Kingdom makes it clear that addiction is not a choice. Nana was prescribed OxyContin after a knee injury, then progressed to be addicted to heroin. The belief that addiction is a choice contributes to the stigma surrounding SUD and will lead to more people dying from overdoses. Through Nana, Gyasi strives to reduce the stigma associated with addiction and save people’s lives.