Your Neighbor, Your Teacher, Your Friend: Substance Use Disorder Doesn’t Look Like What You Think
It hides behind bright smiles, steady jobs, PTA meetings, and Sunday dinners. It’s the neighbor who mows your lawn without being asked, the teacher who stays late to help struggling students, the friend who knows how to make you laugh even when your world feels heavy.
Substance use disorder doesn’t look like the mugshots on the evening news or the caricatures you see in movies. It’s quieter, closer. It’s your coworker, your loved one, even you.
Substance use disorder doesn’t always scream. Sometimes, it whispers.
It hides behind bright smiles, steady jobs, PTA meetings, and Sunday dinners. It’s the neighbor who mows your lawn without being asked, the teacher who stays late to help struggling students, the friend who knows how to make you laugh even when your world feels heavy.
Substance Use Disorder doesn’t look like the mugshots on the evening news or the caricatures you see in movies. It’s quieter, closer. It’s your coworker, your loved one, your you.
The Reality We Don’t Talk About
Here’s a hard truth: More than 46 million people in the U.S. struggle with a substance use disorder (SUD), according to the latest data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. That’s 1 in 7 adults.
Every 5 minutes, an American dies from an opioid overdose. In 2022 alone, over 80,000 lives were lost to opioids. These aren’t just numbers. They’re stories. They’re people. They’re someone’s everything.
And the majority of them weren’t what you’d expect. They weren’t unhoused or unemployed. Most were working parents, caregivers, or friends who seemed like they had it all together—until they didn’t.
What Stigma Gets Wrong
The stigma around substance use disorder (SUD) is a lie. It’s built on fear, ignorance, and the need to feel separate. It convinces us that SUD is easy to spot, that it lives on the outskirts of society, that it’s a choice someone makes instead of something that happens to them.
But here’s what stigma gets wrong:
Three-quarters of people struggling with SUD are employed.
Most people who develop an SUD first use substances as teens or young adults—often before their brains are fully developed.
SUD is not a moral failing. It’s a complex disease influenced by genetics, trauma, environment, and mental health.
Look Closer, Feel Deeper
It’s not comfortable to confront the truth. It’s not easy to admit that SUD doesn’t fit into neat little boxes. It’s not easy to see the humanity behind the struggle when society has conditioned us to look away.
But we have to.
We have to stop expecting SUD to fit into a stereotype. We have to stop assuming it won’t happen to the people we know and love. We have to look closer.
Because SUD is messy and raw, but so is recovery. And recovery only happens when we create space for it—without judgment, without shame, and with the understanding that anyone can struggle.
A Call for Compassion
Here’s another truth: Recovery is possible. With the right support, access to care, and understanding, people can and do recover from SUD. Over 20 million Americans are living in recovery right now, proving that hope is not just a word—it’s a reality.
At Adams Legacy Project, we believe in showing up for that humanity. We believe in seeing the struggle and saying, "You’re not alone." We believe in honoring the people behind the pain and building a world where compassion replaces stigma.
So next time you think about substance use disorder, remember this: It’s not what you think. It’s not "them." It’s all of us. And we all deserve better.
Let’s do better.
For your neighbor. For your teacher. For your friend. For you.
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Substance Use Disorder Prevalence: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). (2022). Key Substance Use and Mental Health Indicators in the United States: Results from the 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Retrieved from https://www.samhsa.gov
Opioid Overdose Deaths: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2023). Drug Overdose Deaths Remain High. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov
Employment Among Those with Addiction: National Safety Council (NSC) and NORC at the University of Chicago. (2020). Substance Use and the Workplace. Retrieved from https://www.nsc.org
Recovery Statistics: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). (2020). National Recovery Month Toolkit. Retrieved from https://www.samhsa.gov
Teen Substance Use: National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). (2023). Substance Use in Adolescence. Retrieved from https://nida.nih.govDescription text goes here
