(ThySistas.com) During the Olympics it came out that the biological mother of gymnast, Simone Biles is a recovering drug addict. Granted this should not have been news, but I’m pretty sure we know why the media honed in on this aspect of her life and it’s foul. However, her biological mother spoke out about being called an addict. Whether we agree with her or not what caught my attention was the comments on said article. One commenter specifically spoke to having no compassion for her because if she loved her kids she wouldn’t have been an addict. Sistahs I must admit this position sat terribly with me. Granted, the commenter is entitled to her opinion.
However, I would like to key in on how our community views addiction, and quite frankly we are NOT honest about it. When we think of addicts that destroy their lives, and those of whom they love, we tend to only think about drugs. One should never throw stones living in a glass house. Many of our people are suffering from addictions of many kinds. All addictions are dangerous, and can hurt those that we love.
Many things can drive an individual to addiction, and many speak o
n the matter without knowledge. Losing loved ones, financial hardships, abuse, devastation following natural disasters, violation of any kind, etc.; these and many others send people into addiction on a daily basis. We are not all of the same internal strength, and we don’t all have the same support system. The important thing to understand is though addiction is a problem it is often the side effect of a bigger issue. Granted, many of us can say there is always a choice, and addiction is one that should be avoided at all cost. I agree, however this should apply to all addictions not just drugs.
I find that we address addiction like sin…some are treated worse than others. Those that throw stones may be addicted to food…YES food. There are many people that eat their way into various health problems as a result of the demons they are facing. It’s just as devastating to their children when they are in and out of the hospital due to health problems that could have been avoided. However, this is often justified. Do we openly shame those whose marriages are destroyed due to porn, or sex, addictions? What about those that are addicted to spending?
Sistahs, if we are going to look down on one form of addiction we must shame them all. To say a woman, we do not know, doesn’t love her children because of her addiction is void of compassion. I’m serious about it because a lot of the commenters that condemned this women were sistahs. This is not a way to heal community. We can never afford to be without compassion as we may one day need it. The hypocrisy is foul, and it is a cancer in our community. Yes, addiction is wrong. Yes, there are other choices.
With that being said we should have enough compassion as sisters and mothers to lift one enough up when one of us has hit rock bottom. Just because we can see the drug addict doesn’t make their addiction any worse than another sistahs closet addiction that no one can see. The drug addict is not the only one capable of shaming their children. Porn, and sex, addiction is not merely a man thing, and men are not the only ones that have lost their families for it. It’s time to be real. We aren’t going to even get started in-depth on food, and alcohol. Just because you can function at work doesn’t mean you don’t have a problem.
Let’s kill this hypocrisy, come off our high horse and stand with one another. We could be a force for positivity to help another sister get on her feet. If her addiction is far gone…the least we can do is not tear her down. Sistahs its simple let’s give each other the love and care we ourselves would want if our pain or addiction was as obvious as drug addiction. The truth is addiction is addiction no matter what kind. Anyone dealing with such will need quite a bit of compassion.
Staff Writer; Christian Starr
May connect with this sister over at Facebook; https://www.facebook.com/christian.pierre.9809 and also Twitter; http://twitter.com/MrzZeta.