 Should we stop using the word addict? Does it carry and perpetuate the stigma? Why am I wearing a purple unicorn shirt and why is that purple unicorn in the thumbnail? Stay tuned, you'll get answers to all these questions. What's up everybody? This is Chris from the Rewired Soul where we talk about the problem but focus on the solution. So this is a question that I've been getting a ton over the past few months and it is should we stop using the word addict? So a couple months ago the Associated Press released a statement saying that they were removing the word addict and drug abuser from their style guide. They're going to quit using those and one of the reasons that they're doing this is because they feel that it perpetuates the stigma. There are people who are getting offended by this so I'm here to give my opinion on the matter as well as my personal experience. I will also link in the description below to the Associated Press article about this matter. So this is a topic that's actually come up a lot when it comes to any form of mental illness and this is what we call person first language. So not talking about addiction for a second, let's say that person's bipolar. No the correct way would be that is a person with bipolar disorder. You see where I'm going with this? You might have heard of person first language with other issues like autism so rather than saying this person is autistic it is a person who has autism. So I absolutely understand where this is coming from and how people might be offended by it and when it comes to things like autism I don't struggle with autism so I don't know what they deal with. Mental health issues. You could say I'm depressed, you could say I'm anxious, that's cool. When it comes to addiction I think that we're in a whole different ball game and here's me personally. In the age of 2016 and 2017 after you know all the political debates and everything this term snowflake gained a lot of traction and snowflake is used as people who get very easily offended and the left throws it at the right, the right throws it at the left and for me personally this is something where for me now if you have a different opinion go for it but for me it feels like that's a little snowflakey for me to say no that term addict offends me. Now I want to make it very clear that I come from a 12-step background that is how I got sober and part of this is whenever I introduce myself in a 12-step meeting it's hi I'm Chris I'm an addict or hi I'm Chris I'm an alcoholic. This is for a very very specific purpose. One of the main reasons people relapse is because we have a disease that tells us that it doesn't exist. When I identify myself as an addict or as an alcoholic every single time I say that it is a reminder to me of the illness that I have an analogy I give all the time is that we have to look at someone who's a diabetic or excuse me a person with diabetes this type of person has to remember every single day that they have this illness or they're going to eat the wrong foods and potentially hurt themselves same thing with me I have to self identify as this thing so I never forget that I have this disease of the mind and one is too many and a thousand is never enough so personally my problems are a lot bigger than what people call me so I do not get offended every day and if you are in recovery you understand what I'm saying every single day we're fighting for our lives to stay clean and live better lives I do not have time to get angry or upset over these tiny little semantics over the situation now one of the arguments for this person first language is that I do not want to only be identified as an addict or as an alcoholic that to me is a little bit ridiculous like I am a lot of things it doesn't mean that that is my only identity like I am overweight but I am not just Chris the fat guy I am a father but I'm not just father Chris I am a son I am an employee but those aren't my defining factors they are just parts of me the same way that my addiction is just one small part of me and as long as I know that to myself I do not take offense when people would label me as an addict or alcoholic I say this openly I say it freely and I hope it gives some other people the opportunity to not be ashamed of this thing I do not think this perpetuates the stigma of it at all now I will say this in my opinion the word junkie that is a derogatory term and it's almost like in the gay community how they can call each other certain words same thing with us like if I'm talking to another opiate addict you know we might toss around the term junkie but typically when somebody else uses the word junkie it's in a very negative fashion so I will say that and I don't mean to get all uh snowflakey about that but that's my opinion on the word junkie but when it comes to addict or drug abuser not a big deal now you're wondering Chris why do you have this purple unicorn what's this have to do with a purple unicorn the main point that I'm getting at and what came up in a conversation with my colleagues on slack when we were discussing this topic is I do not care what you call me you can call me a purple unicorn if you want to the only thing that matters is that I personally know that I am an addict I am an alcoholic drugs and alcohol will kill me and destroy my life so I work at a rehab I work for a big rehab company and I have amazing co-workers and bosses and when they came to visit me in Las Vegas they surprised me with this shirt that our graphic designer named Ariel personally designed and they gave it to me because now I am known as the purple unicorn so that is the story behind the purple unicorn but like I said I don't care what you call me to thine own self be true so thanks for watching I would love to know your opinions on this subject so leave them in the comments below but if you like this video give it a thumbs up and if you are new here I'm always doing videos about addiction about mental health anxiety depression PTSD all that stuff so make sure you click the little round subscribe button below this box and stay tuned because I'm always making new content I'll see you next time