Today, Russell Brand’s a household name. He’s a famous actor, comedian, social activist, and author. He’s starred in more blockbuster movies than we can count and sold out clubs on comedy tours. He’s a certified force of nature.
12 years ago things were very different. Brand was struggling with addiction and, by his own admission, barely escaped alive.
He eventually got sober and has been an outspoken recovery advocate ever since. He’s made international headlines for his thoughts on both addiction and recovery.
He even spoke in front of a United Kingdom MP Committee about his experience spiraling into active addiction and his incredible climb out. This particular appearance sparked very varied reactions. Some believe he’s onto something huge. Others think he’s gone off the deep end.
Regardless of where you stand on his views, Brand’s bringing international attention to addiction. At the end of the day, we can all agree that’s a good thing.
Read on for a breakdown of what Brand’s saying and what we think here at Malvern!
What Brand’s Saying
Russell Brand takes an old-school approach about what addiction really is and how people successfully recover. In fact, many of his ideas are born from an organization formed in Akron, Ohio in the mid-1930s.
Responding to what made him addicted in the first place, Brand said:
Without these [12-step] fellowships I would take drugs. Because, even now, the condition persists. Drugs and alcohol are not my problem, reality is my problem, drugs and alcohol are my solution – Brand in The Guardian
This idea – that chemicals are the solution to a deeper and larger problem – is one we firmly believe in here at Malvern.
Here, Brand hits on something he’s passionately argued for in many venues, including when he spoke in front of the UK MP Committee – the decriminalization of drugs.
Rather than calling for complete legalization – aka the “Portugal model” – he calls for addiction to be treated as a potentially fatal illness and for addicts to receive treatment not jail. He uses his own experience to argue addicts should be treated with sensitivity and constructive support, similar to the approach used for psychological conditions.
He goes on to touch on some of the challenges inherent to this approach. Chief among these is the often fierce stigmatization those struggling with addiction suffer:
It is difficult to feel sympathy for these people. It is difficult to regard some bawdy drunk and see them as sick and powerless. It is difficult to suffer the selfishness of a drug addict who will lie to you and steal from you and forgive them and offer them help. Can there be any other disease that renders its victims so unappealing – Brand in The Guardian
How great is that?
Brand also makes clear his advocacy isn’t around legalizing drugs – a common accusation lobbed towards him – but rather that the English Government should be spending their resources to help struggling addicts find “truth and authenticity” instead of letting them fail and then “teach[ing] them a lesson” through current judicial practices.
In other words:
If drugs are illegal people who use drugs are criminals. We have set our moral compass on this erroneous premise, and we have strayed so far off course that the landscape we now inhabit provides us with no solutions and greatly increases the problem – Brand in The Independent
What We Think Here at Malvern
Many of Brand’s ideas – from his thoughts on where addiction’s born to his plea for treatment not jail – hit home with us here at Malvern.
We’ve been focused on treating the disease of addiction since 1948. During a time when alcoholics and addicts were locked up in asylums, we were one of the only places in the country to provide quality, clinical care.
We’ve focused our resources on understanding what the disease of addiction is, understanding how it manifests, and understanding the various co-occurring disorders that are usually present with it.
Most importantly, we’ve focused on how to successfully treat addiction and facilitate long-term recovery. You know what we’ve learned after almost 70 years? That to achieve life-long sobriety, you have to tackle the issues below the surface. By providing our patients with a complete understanding of addiction, they choose the path of lifelong recovery.