Bridging the Gap: Supporting Individuals with SUD Beyond Treatment
Substance use disorder (SUD) recovery is a complex, lifelong process requiring coordinated support across health care, social services, and community systems. Unlike other chronic conditions, SUD is episodic and has uniquely high stakes due to the lethality of the current drug supply. The lethality of today’s drug supply means that a gap in care or a recurrence of symptoms can quickly become fatal.
Coping with Grief and Loss
Grief is a natural response to loss. It’s the emotional suffering you feel when something or someone you love is taken away. Often, the pain of loss can feel overwhelming. You may experience a range of complex and unexpected emotions, including shock, anger, disbelief, guilt, and profound sadness.
Losing Your Loved One To Suicide
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), globally, more than 720,000 men, women, and children die by suicide each year, impacting almost 1 billion people directly bereaved or known to those who died.
The Loss Of A Loved One To Suicide
Eight years ago, my world shattered. My fiancé, Olivier, died by suicide just weeks before our wedding. We were living together in France, far from English-speaking support services, and left in grief, shock, and isolation. Losing someone to suicide is unlike any other kind of loss. It leaves you with unanswered questions, deep pain, and often an unbearable silence from the world around you.
A Journey of Healing and Connection
Author Dr. Saba Riaz will explore how trauma and emotional stress from early life experiences can disrupt the neurochemical balance in the brain. According to Dr. Riaz, “Addiction strongly affects neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin that regulate mood, reward, and impulse control. Chronic stress and trauma cause changes in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis that create a biochemical environment that increases the probability of addiction.”
