Addiction Language: Words Matter
Leah Holcomb
As part of this course and development of this book, students were taught to used patient-centered, compassionate, and de-stigmatizing language when speaking about substance use. Stigma is very prevalent when thinking about substance use. There are inaccurate beliefs that addiction is a moral failing, instead of what we know it to be—a chronic, treatable disease that people can recover from and lead healthy lives. Because addiction and substance use are highly stigmatized behavioral disorders, promoting the use of correct and kind language is critical to reducing the impacts of stigmatization on those who do use substances. Below are a few stigmatizing words commonly used when describing substances / people with substance use disorders and alternative language recommended by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).
| Instead of… | Use… |
| Addict/User | Person with a substance use disorder |
| Former addict | Person in recovery or long-term recovery |
| Abuse | For illicit drugs: use / For prescription medications: misuse, used other than prescribed |
| Clean
|
For toxicology screen results: testing negative / For non-toxicology purposes: being in remission or recovery; not currently or actively using drugs |
| Dirty | For toxicology screen results: testing positive / For non-toxicology purposes: person who uses drugs |
| Addicted baby | Baby born to mother who used drugs while pregnant OR baby with neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome/neonatal abstinence syndrome OR newborn exposed to substances |
