Living Recovery: A Centre Story of Addiction 101

Alex Elswick, Centre alum and athlete shares his story of going from living at Centre to living under a bridge then finding his way to earning his doctorate degree at the University of Kentucky.  He's the founder of a nonprofit organizaation, Voices of Hope, and a leader in the fight against the opioid epidemic.  Elswick is also in long-term recovery from an opioid use disorder.  His presentation is a crash course in substance use, prevention, addiction, and recovery.  The convocation is divided into three parts with the intention of reducing stigma surrounding substance use through his personal story of addiction and recovery; focusing on the risk factors for substance use and its long term-changes in the brain; offering mounting evidence for the need to treat addiction as a chronic disorder.  Finally, the convocation concludes with some discussion of the importance of using de-stigmatized language surrounding substance use.