For many of us we may have heard of this concept around harm reduction but we may not realize that we employ these efforts everyday in our lives. When we stop at a red light, that is reducing the harm of getting hit by another car. Or when we drink diet soda to reduce the amount of harm (sugar) in drinking soda. By knowing about these potential harms, we take preventative steps to reduce our own risks.

We employ harm reduction strategies regularly and may not even know it through our cultural and spiritual practices, social norms, and even reducing harm around our own vices. Say I go out drinking the whole weekend, then I might commit to not drinking for the rest of the week. That is reducing your harm in alcohol intake. Others might decide to drink a glass of water in between each alcoholic beverage to reduce harm on their liver, regularly hydrate, and possibly minimize the amount of alcoholic intake.

I love to share this example when I talk about harm reduction. So I’m generally concerned about my weight and my muffin top, but I love Ben and Jerry’s Chunky Monkey ice cream. I also know that there is like way too many grams of fat in that pint; which I might eat all of. So I found out that at the frozen yogurt shop over the hill from my house sells fat-free frozen banana yogurt. And I can add chocolate chips and walnuts to it if I want. I consider this my harm reduction because I have a thoughtful plan that reduces my sugar intake and I still get to enjoy one of my favorite desserts (my vice)!

Using substances is the same thing; we enjoy using them, they make us feel good, and they can also cause harm when used in too much of a quantity, equipment is shared, or it starts becoming destructive in your life. There are different classifications of substances/drugs and how they work in our bodies. There are also other considerations, like have you eaten, did you get enough sleep, are you taking any other medications, substances, how much you have already consumed, and your emotional state. Some might call this the biopsychosocial or taking into considerations the biology, psychology, and social. All of these factors can impact a person’s experience when using substances, how the substances interact in their body, and sometimes it leads to overdosing. We will get back to that, but first if we are going to employ the first principle of harm reduction, which is to ‘do no harm’ then we should learn more about how substances work with in our brain.

“This is your brain and this is your brain on drugs!” Anyone remember this campaign in the 80’s with the commercial of an egg in a frying pan. Haha, that worked and kept everyone from using drugs. So, here you go this is my attempt of explaining your brain on drugs or the biological aspect. The job of our brain is to take in, transmit, evaluate, and then spit out orders from all the cues we get internally and externally. The brain is full of nerve cells or what we could call messengers. They distribute information via electric charges from the fibers that floats information across the synapse or the little gaps in between the fibers. The chemicals that transmit information across the synapse are called neurotransmitters. These neurotransmitters often control feelings and moods which are connected to mental and emotional health. Substances affect the brain either by mimicking, stimulating or blocking the reabsorption of neurotransmitters. The effects of these drugs can either stimulate or depress brain activity. By knowing how the substance that you are using affects your brain, then you will be able to better know the cause and effects from using them.

Often when discussing substance use, we don’t include aspects of why a person might be using. Did you ever consider if the person is having difficult feelings? Maybe you are challenged by your feelings? Are you highly sensitive to criticism or do you highly criticize yourself? Do you get angry over minute things? Do you have unbearable sadness? Do you have an existing mental health challenge that you are trying to medicate or manage the symptoms of? The emotional or psychological aspect of our being is as vital to consider when we talk about using substances as the biological part. However, in this country we are socialized to pull ourselves up from the boot straps, get better, figure it out, and only the tough can fight drug addiction. To understand the full picture we must also consider chemical imbalances, histories of trauma, emotional health and current situations.

Our social lives are another aspect that can impact how substances may be used, which substances are socially acceptable to use, the level of harm that you may be at by using or combining multiple substances, where you take these substances, and how much you may know about substances. Often in harm reduction this is the only aspect we focus on: reducing risk while using substances. There are programs like syringe exchanges, safer injection sites, abscess and wound clinics, integrated services that include HIV and Hepatitis C testing, medical services, drug treatment services. Other aspects of harm reduction include education about how to reduce harm when using substances, like safer injection practices, guards on glass pipes, safer sex practices, and how to prevent transmitting communicable diseases. But there are more to the social aspects like homelessness, mental health, history of incarceration, whether the people around you all use substances, or if your family has a history of using substances. The social is complex and can be misconstrued by many variables; however, the more that we understand the better off we will be.

By knowing how to reducing the harms in our lives we can then have healthier outcomes. I hope that each of you are able to further educate yourselves about your vices, how they may impact your brain, how you are feeling emotionally and the social aspects of your life. #squishytalk

SquishyLady