ADVOCACY
A big part of Roads to Recovery is advocating for those living with substance use disorders and seeking long-term recovery. There is a great deal of stigma tied to it all,
and we aim to fight that stigma and promote recovery
through workshops, community conversations,
conferences, lunch-and-learns, and so much more.
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on our NEWS tab at the top of the page.
Below is an official statement published Friday, August 29, 2025
In light of recent events surrounding a recovery residence in our community, Roads to Recovery, Inc. is duty-bound to respond. Our mission is to assist people to find and sustain recovery from substance use disorders, and to eliminate the stigma that prevents people from getting help. The concerns raised about the residence in Lynchburg (incorrectly labeled a “halfway house”) and the framing of the story in the media are stigmatizing, sensationalized, and misleading.
We at Roads to Recovery share concerns with parents, neighbors, and our community about safety, and all aspects of quality of life in our community. We are parents, neighbors, and community members too, despite the fact that some of our neighbors want to marginalize us.
Here are a few facts to inform your perspective: Alcohol kills more people in the U.S. than all other drugs combined. About two of every ten of your neighbors over the age of 12 have a diagnosable alcohol use disorder that often leads to accidents, injuries, and deaths (NIAAA). Drug use is equally distributed across all communities, including affluent as well as disadvantaged areas (NIH). Your affluent neighbors are using illicit drugs at the same rate as the people you stigmatize. The only difference between a group of people living in a recovery residence and the other families in your neighborhood is that the recovery residence members do not drink or use other drugs.
Here are some facts on recovery and recovery residences: There at least as many people in recovery in the U.S. as people in active addiction. Some live in recovery residences, most live, work, shop, and play among you and you don’t know who they are. Recovery residences are evidence-based support systems for long-term recovery. People in recovery, living together as a cohesive group, are the functional equivalent of a family. They share meals together, share household responsibilities, and provide social, emotional and recovery support for one another. Our program outcomes for our peers include sustained abstinence, achieving and maintaining gainful employment, no new justice system involvement for those who had past DUI or possession charges, improved family relationships, and overall better quality of life, which is what keeps people in recovery.
Here is some legal information: People in recovery from substance use disorders are protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act. As such, they are also protected by the federal Fair Housing Act, which recognizes that individuals with disabilities in a group setting constitute a family for purposes of zoning regulation, and may not be subjected to requirements that are not imposed on households of persons without disabilities. As of July 1, 2025 in Virginia, recovery residences must be certified by the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, which attests to their quality and practice standards, and failure to certify constitutes a misdemeanor.
In sum, the attitudes conveyed by some of our citizens, city officials, and media are uninformed, stigmatizing and harmful to people who are working hard to overcome the effects of active addiction. To say that it is 'impossible' for your children to enter and play in their backyard because a person in recovery is walking near your property or sitting on their own front porch is ludicrous. We would be glad to invite some of our neighbors to share their experiences of living next door to our residents. They will talk about our folks mowing their lawns, helping them with other yard work, being friendly, and looking out for them.
Almost everyone knows someone who has struggled with alcohol or other drug problems. No one chooses to have an addiction.
Be careful who you hate, it could be someone you love.
"The Recovery Advocacy Project (RAP) is a network of people across the country advocating for addiction recovery policies. RAP is committed to giving people in recovery from all pathways, family members, and supporters of recovery the grassroots organizing tools to think and act locally. RAP is working to build a visible and effective constituency in demand of community and public policy based on solutions in response to America's long standing addiction crisis."
"Harnessing science, love and the wisdom of lived experience, the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is a force of healing and hope for individuals, families and communities affected by substance use and mental health conditions." They have excellent resources about Recovery Advocacy!
3 Major Myths Non-Addicts Have About Addiction
by Jon Winder, B.A., M.A.
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The addict has to hit bottom before they will change. There is nothing magic about hitting bottom. Many addicts hit bottom a long time ago, and in fact, not only hit bottom, they are in a hole and can't get out. They need a ladder just to come up to their bottom. Much of this is created by having accompanying mental illnesses like depression, bi-polar disorder and generalized anxiety. Although it seems as if they are choosing their drug over everything else in their lives, the reality for most is that they are caught in a mental, emotional, spiritual, and psychological trap. Science has shown how addiction changes the brain function, so that it develops natural neuro-pathways that are reinforcing for the addict, so there is a physiological dependency.
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Addicts will stop using if they are pressured. Drugs/alcohol initially provide tremendous relief from other symptoms and issues. There is a pleasure or rush from them. As use continues, however, the addictions become more like a daily crutch. In the later stages addiction becomes a focus of life subjugating all other concerns and worries. The lifestyle is focused on obtaining, preparing, and indulging in the addiction to the detriment of all other aspects of their lives.
Here is what most non-addicts don't understand about addiction: for the non-addicts, if addiction was causing problems and stress in their lives, they would stop the source i.e., the addiction. Whereas for the addict, if addiction is causing problems and stress in their lives, rather than stopping, they cope by using more drugs to deaden the pain of the guilt and shame. They focus on getting rid of the negative feelings by increasing their use instead of solving the problem. This can best be illustrated by people who are addicted to gambling. The more they lose, the more justified they feel continuing. Another example is, if the addict is spending all of his money for drugs/alcohol and has no money to pay the electric bill resulting in the electricity being turned off, the family will pressure him to stop.
The addict, however, not knowing how to stop decides to spend what little money he has to help him cope by getting high in order to block the negative feelings of guilt, fear and shame of not paying the electric bill. In other words, they opt for short-term relief vs. long-term solutions. Harvey, a 45-year-old alcoholic, who still lived at home with his aging mother disclosed in group therapy that he had a habit of storing his liquor in a medicine cabinet in the garage. Every now and then (actually many times a day), he would go out into the garage "to get something or feed the dog" and have a nip or two. One day as he was opening the medicine cabinet, he noticed in the mirror his 80-year-old mother peeking around the corner at him. He said, "it made me very nervous and ashamed, so I took care of it." "How?" queried the group members. "I broke the mirror," he proudly exclaimed. For example, shaming drug addicts always has the opposite effect than most people think. It increases their stress level, wounds what little self-esteem they may have, and invalidates their reality, thereby driving their avoidance of criticism deeper. The result is usually they increase their use in order to avoid the inner pain and then they end up using their addiction to get back at someone. It is not unusual to hear a client early in recovery say, "If I am going to keep getting accused of using, I may as well use."
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Once a person with an addiction goes for treatment, they are a failure if they can't stay clean or sober. Treatment is not a one-shot process. There is a saying, "There is no failure; there is only feedback." If a person relapses after treatment, that indicates that there was some aspect of recovery he did not get--maybe he got over-confident, maybe he drove into his work and got overwhelmed, maybe his wife left him while he was in treatment. There are hundreds of ways people relapse. The key is to figure out what the feedback is and what can be done in the future to prevent relapse.
Success in treatment can be that a person stays clean or sober for longer periods each time after a relapse and the periods of using is less. So let's say a person stays clean for 3 months and uses for two weeks and stops. Then he goes six months and only relapses for a week. This is progress. The Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book declares that alcoholism (and addiction) is "cunning, baffling, and powerful" so it is understandable why these myths perpetuate.