BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter from Coun. Natalie Harris is in response to the integrity commissioner's report regarding comments made by Downtown Barrie BIA chair Rob Hamilton, who has since resigned from the position.
*************************
In light if the statements made by former City of Barrie mayor and former BIA chair Rob Hamilton, calling people battling addiction “not a productive, contributing citizen," and being that I am a sitting city councillor who is a member of the recovery community, I feel it is my responsibility to share the following.
The photo attached to this article is of my sickest time in 2015, just prior to being admitted to Homewood Health for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and addiction. A few short years later, I was invited to Ottawa to meet Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and to give him a copy of my book, Save-My-Life School, proving that recovery is possible.
A few short years later, I was invited to Ottawa to testify in front of the Standing Committee on Health for Federal PTSD legislation and met Prime Minister Trudeau, and gave him a copy of my book, Save-My-Life School, proving that recovery is possible.
I was one of the lucky ones. I had people who believed in me and helped me to find treatment. I accepted the help and life is beautiful now. It’s never without its bumps in the road, but I never thought I would be able to say that I loved my life — my addiction had that much of a hold on me.
I went from living in despair and being a patient in the mental health department of Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH) many times, to living in light and love.
I was very close to becoming a Barrie citizen living on the streets. My next drug would have been heroin... that’s just the truth. I was days away from seeking it out. During those desperate times, heroin made sense to me as the only other option to stop the pain I was experiencing in my nightmare-ridden mind was suicide. I overdosed before I could seek it out and luckily survived.
To anyone reading this who sees themselves in my photo, I have faith in you. I believe in you. If you surrender and accept help, and trust that the pain you must feel without drugs is part of your recovery and will get better, you are destined for greatness. You can do and be anything.
You are productive and contributing members of society; you are just sick and need recovery in your life. Take the time you need to get well.
Don’t let words of negativity and ignorance force you into hiding.
Every other disease is given societal permission for recovery. It’s time addiction was treated the same respectful way.
Natalie Harris
Barrie
*************************
