“For a better way of saying it, I give a sh*t. Because it’s about helping people”
Hello Mark, tell us about yourself!
I am Mark Flower. I work with the CSI:OPIOIDs study as an advisor who represents Veterans and people with addiction history.
What is your professional background or personal connection to this work. Why are you interested in this study?
I am a Veteran in recovery. I’ve unfortunately lost too many people I know to the journey of addiction and related issues. Also, suicide is a big part of it. I’ve known too many people in my life who have died by suicide and it shouldn’t have to be that way. Whenever I can work on a project to try to reduce that it’s always good.
What difference do you hope this work will make to others?
I’m hoping that the work we are doing will allow for more awareness in the community. Finding an alternative to the opioids might be very important. My hope is, out of this project, that we can instill that people will have to help with that process. And also, for family members… it’s a thing, that the more they are aware of it the more they can probably become helpful in the process of possibly preventing a suicide.
What has been the most interesting/surprising/meaningful thing about doing this work, so far?
For me, the cool thing was, and I guess surprising, is the conundrum of how we used to deal with pain through opioids. And it has finally come to a point where opioids aren’t necessarily the best way to deal with pain, even though in some cases it may be necessary. It’s not surprising that it was a problem, but that we are finally looking at that.
What ideas do you have that might help us think about suicide and how to prevent it? Is there a special resource or place to learn more about these ideas?
To me personally, I think a more whole-health approach to the suicide prevention is actually a good thing. Some of the folks that I have lost, it wasn’t really the mental health issue that triggered something. IT was more of an outside thing that triggered it. Like say they are in a financial crisis all of a sudden. Or say a divorce is starting to go down. And to me that’s part of the whole health part. And once we are in crisis, that also starts triggering the mental health side of that journey.
What do you think we need to know about Veterans and suicide risk?
Well I’m a Veteran and I want to share three things.
One is I’m trained to fix things, whatever that is, whatever the mission may be.
Two is I’m trained to be stubborn.
Three is I’m trained to think about everybody else and not myself. And in some ways that gets in the way of taking care of myself.
What do you think people in our society might need to learn at this time about pain and its care?
That’s a complicated question for me, because pain is real even if it may not be. When we kind of get used to the pain, it never really goes away, kind of like that phantom pain where it’s always hurting. I’m not saying to minimize that, but pain is still real. And if I was going to instill something in folks, pain is real in the individual. And even though opioids, in specific may be very appropriate, but as a solution it hurts people.
For a better way of saying it, I give a sh*t. That’s kind of why I do what I do. Because it’s really about helping people.
