Alicia Cook, multi-award-winning writer and mental health and addiction awareness advocate, has found poetry to be a vital tool for healing. The poet behind Stuff I’ve Been Feeling Lately, I Hope My Voice Doesn’t Skip, Sorry I Haven’t Texted You Back, and The Music Was Just Getting Good, her writing focuses on addiction, mental health, and grief.

“I have always been a storyteller, or a documenter might be more accurate, since most of what I write is rooted in reality and based on my life experiences,” Cook shared. “In 2006, my cousin Jessica died from a heroin overdose. After years of dealing privately and struggling to find a voice I could relate to on the topic, I started shedding light on it. As an essayist and speaker, my activism to fight the opioid epidemic is far-reaching.”

Research shows that from 2000 to 2018, the rate of drug overdose deaths more than tripled in the United States (Singh GK, et al, 2019). In fact, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports that 1.6 million people had an opioid use disorder in the last year (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2022).

While headlines of the opioid crisis are common, understanding its connection to a lack of mental health care is not. One large, nationally representative study showed that people with mental, personality, and substance use disorders (SUD) were at increased risk for nonmedical use of prescription opioids, and that 43 percent of people in SUD treatment for nonmedical use of prescription painkillers have a diagnosis or symptoms of mental health disorders, particularly depression and anxiety (NIDA, 2022).

Despite the need for mental health treatment to prevent self-medicating with substances, over 56 percent of adults with mental health struggles do not receive........

© Psychology Today