Representing: Its More than Flying Colors!
What’s the difference in the thinking of a gang member and an addict? What’s the difference between a person addicted to a drug -- or being addicted to a lifestyle that may or may not center on drug use? What’s the difference between a habit and an addiction? Are all habitual people addicted to something?
Perhaps our quest to understand both of these populations would best be served by looking at the similarities. Both situations represent behaviors based on cultures each with their own values, attitudes and beliefs. While a person outside of that culture finds these things to be strange or perhaps even threatening, to the person living in that culture, they become a source of consistency and comfort.
In any large culture, you’ll find subcultures looking for recognition. I recently attended training on gang identification and the instructor clearly pointed out that a number of people in the room were either wearing typical law enforcement colored clothing, or law enforcement logos on the clothing. While I sat there smugly thinking “That’s not me”, I looked around the room and noticed how many people (like me) were wearing “Harley Davidson logos. Did I make a deliberate decision when I got dressed that morning to “represent” or “fly colors” that morning getting dressed?
No, but I did make a decision to do was comfortable in choosing how I was going to represent myself that day. While I’m not implying that these are signs of addiction, I am stating within our own cultures or subcultures, we all have things that are so comfortable, typical and safe in that culture, that we attempt to take these things with us when we travel to other cultures.
In my current life, I work on the side of corrections as a Certified Addictions Counselor and Gang Monitor. Being on the side of Corrections has not always been a strong theme in my life.
As a recovering addict, alcoholic and former antisocial person, I have been blessed to be allowed to bring my knowledge and training from that culture in to my current world. Frequently in my career, I have been asked by a Law Enforcement Officer or Correctional Officer, “Can you believe these idiots? All they have to do is quit doing drugs and gangbanging!” In reality, unfortunately, healing is never that fast, painless or easy.
I agree that to live in society, these things are crucial but am aware from personal experience and the experiences of other recovering people, that transition takes time. Early on in my recovery, I learned that “Recovery is a lifetime process of growth and change”. The early years of recovery were sometimes pleasant, but were also times of fear, loneliness, frustration, self doubt and uncertainty. Only after I quit drugs, got into support groups and met healthier people and changed old familiar behaviors could I get on to the next phase of my life.
It was then that I discovered I was not only addicted to drugs, but to its lifestyle. I had a new life, but from time to time (in the early days) got “home sick” for what had once been my life.
I didn’t want it back. I didn’t relapse, and I didn’t glorify the “good old days” because I really knew they were not that good at all.
I came to realize that what I was doing was grieving the loss of my old life. I was grieving the loss of an old identity that had been my companion, protector, and way of life for a number of years. Part of me was dying and I didn’t understand that it needed to be in order for my new life to grow. I had to let my old life die in order to save my new life.
All the addict needs to do is stop acting like an addict. All the gang member needs to do is stop thinking like a gang member. All the police officer needs to do is not think like a police officer. All the Correctional person needs to do is stop thinking like a correctional officer.
Whether it be for the positive or the negative, we all “become” what we do regularly. It becomes a means of identification for ourselves and others. It is a means of seeking out our own kind for reasons of socialization or protection. Whether your means of identification are gang colors, a Jack Daniels T-shirt, or a polo shirt with a police department logo or a corrections logo it’s all a means of representing. Representing in and of itself is not a bad thing. It keeps us content and safe in the culture we choose to live in.
It’s difficult some times to not become irritated at the behaviors of those I’m trying to teach. It’s easy to take the behaviors of those individuals personally and feel like they’re wasting my time.
It’s easy to just smile when the person says “Can you believe how stupid these guys are?” But that does not address the issue. As professionals it’s to our advantage to realize that there are many similar traits or behaviors. We also need to remember the fact that those behaviors exist only because they meet a need. When the behavior no longer meets the need for which it was intended, the behavior will change.
If a lifestyle no longer gives the person what they need, that person will be more open to change in order to meet the need. In dealing with gang members and addicts, we would be well off to be as aware of the addiction to the lifestyle as a source of comfort, safety or as a means of stimulation.
There are many forms of addiction. Addiction is not a choice. Addiction in part, is a sincere belief however distorted that something or someone can and should make us feel as good as we want to feel. I haven’t done drugs for many, many years but I still consider myself an addict in recovery. My lifestyle has changed, although I still remember how to think like I did in those days. Some times I find it helps me in my current position to relate on some levels.
I have over the years found a new support group, community and value system. My current substances of choice are fried chicken and root beer. My current colors are the American Flag, Harley Davidson, and the occasional Department of Corrections polo shirt when others are flagging at trainings too.
Do I believe how “those people” think? You bet!
Steve Edmunds is a Corrections Counselor in Iowa specializing in addiction and gang monitoring. He is a member of the Patriot Guard Riders which is an organization of motorcycle riders sand others providing escorts, security and support for the families and funerals of US soldiers killed in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom as well as all fallen service personnel. Steve can be reached at fbcritter@yahoo.com
