A Different Kind of Mondays with Megan:
Today is National Overdose Awareness Day. My stomach flips and my heart leaps into my throat at the fact that this day even exists in the first place. An epidemic of epic proportions. In 2017, 70,237 Americans died from drug overdoses. On average, drug overdoses now kill 192 Americans per day.1 In fact, drug overdoses are now the #1 cause of accidental death in our country. Overdoses kill more Americans than car crashes, gun violence, and even breast cancer.2
Those statistics are pretty uncomfortable to talk about aren’t they? Let me take the uncomfortability one step further:
On July 9, 2020 The New Jersey Herald reports, “Two months before the first reports in March of the coronavirus striking New Jersey, the Attorney General’s Office announced that drug overdose deaths in the state were down in 2019.
The 3% year-over-year decline was the first decrease in fatal overdoses in five years. The good news, however, hasn’t last. State officials now say overdose deaths in New Jersey are up 20% through May.
Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli has suggested the pandemic has played a role. “Social isolation, grief and job loss are just some of the factors that could contribute to an increase in deaths,” she told reporters in a press briefing on June 22.
From March through May, fatal overdoses in New Jersey rose 19.5% from the year before, although most of that increase was due to a sharp rise in May.”
Here’s what I want to tell you if you’re struggling today:
Your name not hopeless.
Your name is not addict.
Your name is not failure.
Your name is not your worst mistake.
Your name is not broken.
Your name is not homeless.
Your name is not faker.
Your name is not lonely.
You are far more than your very worst day, your very worst season, and there’s more to you than the very worst chaos you may have think you’ve caused. You are more than the sorriest and saddest decision you have ever made. You are more than the darkest season you’ve ever endured. There is more for you.
Whatever war you’re in has already been won by a God who loves you more than anything else in the whole entire world. Whatever pain you’re in has already been experienced by a God who sees and knows it all – and loves you endlessly. Whatever emptiness you feel can be filled by a God who wants to do that for you. Whatever darkness you’re in can be trampled out by calling on the name of Jesus, who makes the darkness tremble. Whatever fear you’re experiencing can be put to rest by a God who cancels out all fear.
You matter and your life matters and your thoughts matter.
We’re better with you here.
We want you here.
So please stay.
💜
*If you or a loved one are struggling with Substance Use Disorder, I will do anything in my power and resource to walk along side of you. Please email me: [email protected], respond directly to this thread, or call my cell phone at any time.*
1. CDC. Drug Overdose Deaths in the United States, 1999–2017. December 2017.
2. New York Daily News. “Opioid overdoses kill more people in U.S. than guns or breast cancer.” December 21, 2017.
