I learned of a very alarming opioid statistic recently. It is estimated that 1.25 million years of life have been lost to drug overdoses amongst American teens and young adults based upon an average life expectancy of 78.8 years over the last two years.
While COVID itself has sadly taken many lives, the opioid crisis continues to grow exponentially yet remain relatively unseen to the masses. This pandemic has led to social isolation for so many, where addiction and mental illness have grown in the process. Much of the younger generations out there right now don’t know how to ask for help and continue to turn to things like drugs for answers.
In the year ending May of 2019, there were 374 reported overdose deaths in teens between 13 to 19. But in the year ending May of 2021, that number jumped to 1,365. That’s a very disturbing jump because if you do the math, it won’t be long before we begin to see overdose deaths amongst youths regularly being in the 10,000+ range.
While I do care about all the deaths related to COVID, I feel it’s my job to shed light on something that continues to get overlooked, especially since COVID began. I know I’ve written about this before but seeing this latest statistic of 1.25 million years of life lost to something that can be prevented, I’m deeply saddened.
How many family’s lives have been torn apart and shattered due to all these sudden deaths of so many children from opioid overdoses is countless by this point. Many often don’t even know their kids are struggling with an addiction to opioids until it’s too late. Fentanyl-addiction is the biggest culprit now for this and I face this every time I volunteer at a local detox.
No one seems to be talking anymore at these detoxes about alcohol addiction, or addiction to any other substances. It’s all fentanyl now. I’ve worked with enough teenagers to know, and most don’t know how to stop or have the support at home either. So much of the public health drug intervention gets focused on adults, when the reality is this addiction typically begins at adolescence, which by the time adulthood is reached, it’s extremely difficult to break, regardless of education.
I consider myself one of the lucky ones really. With all the mental, emotional, and physical pain I’ve gone through over the years since getting sober from alcohol and drugs, I know for a 100% fact that I would have been a fentanyl addict right now or probably dead from it if I hadn’t found sobriety when I did.
Opioids are the main driver of drug overdose deaths these days and fentanyl, a synthetic-based version, is the biggest source of them. It’s 100 times stronger than morphine and originally developed to treat intense pain from things like cancer but now can be found far too prevalently on the streets everywhere. Whenever I do my addiction-leads now, I ask how early people have been introduced to drugs like this. The age keeps getting younger and younger. The other day, one such person talked about being exposed to it when they were 10!
What COVID has done to this world may take a long time to repair, with kids needing that the most. All this isolation isn’t healthy as it can lead to profound feelings of emptiness and loneliness, which in turn can lead to picking up an addiction to cope. While on a spiritual journey, spending time alone can be beneficial, in general it’s not, especially when kids are coming from broken homes with unhealthy family dynamics, where opioids are often used for coping mechanisms in both kids and adults alike.
Look, I know COVID has led to so many painful deaths, but honestly, at some point it is going to go away, or at least become an annoyance like the flu, but this opioid pandemic isn’t. It continues to grow exponentially and to end it, it means bringing greater connection and love to the children in our world, to drawing closer together, especially during these isolating times.
Choosing to spend most of our lives on our phones, on the Internet, streaming long hours on TV, immersing oneself in games, away from the world in general, is only going to lead to kids turning more and more to things like drugs to cope. I pray that this world will wake up and realize that there are things growing worse the more we only focus on COVID. I hope more people will wake up to this and see it’s time to stop isolating and instead begin connecting a little more with each other again. You never know, you may be helping to save someone’s life from addiction just by loving them a little more…
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson
