Personal Stories

Stories from “Humans of Northampton”: Amanda

Amanda doesn’t watch television, so she doesn’t know how to answer the question of whether or not the opioid epidemic is real or just media hype.

She bases her opinion more on who is in her life. Like her best friend Kim, who just lost a good friend to heroin 6 weeks ago. She lived in Beverly and had been clean for a year, but then used and overdosed. Or her boyfriend’s younger sister, who has struggled with heroin. When her mother was dying of ovarian cancer she would steal her pain medication.

Stories from “Humans of Northampton”: Jarrod Maslowski

Addiction is something people have vague ideas about. The lack of understanding and the stigmas around addiction are probably the biggest things that are keeping people from the help that they need, but also perpetuating the addictive patterns.