Feeling comfortable in your own body and experiencing a sense of connection and belonging to others is a nearly universal connection to happiness. For people with a visible physical disability, trauma, exclusion, and discrimination contributes to higher rates of mental health problems and substance use disorders. 

When you have a visible physical disability, other people’s ignorance, even when well-meaning, can make you feel different, misunderstood or excluded. 

In this podcast, Jordan talks about the relationship between his life as a person with a visible permanent physical disability and his experience of addiction. The difficulty caused by exclusions in school, and other people’s ignorance, even when well-meaning, led to him feeling different. 

In high school, substance use gave Jordan access to what otherwise felt like unachievable inclusion. Increasing use of substances, in the hustle to experience belonging, led to a life-impairing addiction. Although Jordan has since overcome his addiction and now leads a life full of positivity and meaning, the addiction took a toll on his early adulthood.

Like many common human experiences, including sexual desire, masturbation, queerness and mental illness, addiction is often suffered in secret shame. Jordan’s story models incredible vulnerability, 

@Vanessacliff2