NEW ORLEANS — There's a new initiative launching this weekend at Southern Decadence.
It's designed to support and celebrate sobriety within the LGBTQ+ community during this Labor Day weekend event.
And it's hoped to start some on a new health journey.
It was 2015 when Austin Addison came from his home in New York City to his first Southern Decadence celebration. That's when he fell in love with New Orleans.
“And I had an amazing, amazing, and adventurous time. I saw that the city was really vibrant. It's one of the things that inspired me to actually move here,” said Austin Addison, 35, who works in digital marketing and advertising.
But Austin was a different person back then.
“I was drinking. I was taking street drugs. I was, I was hooting, and hollering, and having a good time,” he remembers.
That lifestyle nearly took his young life.
“It was a while before I realized that they were such a problematic thing in my life. So, I ultimately got sober after a really depressive low in which I attempted suicide, and I came back from that and realized I needed to change some things in my life,” said Addison.
He began a journey from that E.R. to the psych ward, acute rehab, long-term treatment, and 12-step programs, and is now clean and sober for two and a half years.
“And it was one of the scariest things I've ever done in my life, but it was one of the best things I've ever done in my life, because it taught me so much about myself, and about my addiction, about ways to cope, ways to avoid triggers,” Addison said.
Now today, with family relationships mended, he wants to encourage others. He and Dr. Jake Rickoll of Integrity Health and Wellness, along with the Lambda Center Recovery Clubhouse for the LGBTQ+ community, have teamed up and started the first Sober 4 Today initiative at Southern Decadence.
“If we could really just enable you, or empower you to feel supported while you're out because there are so many people who are choosing sobriety. I think people would be less likely to make poor decisions if they felt support from other people in the community,” explained Dr. Jake Rickoll, a licensed nurse practitioner and primary care health provider for adults and the geriatric population at Integrity Health and Wellness.
According to the National Institutes of Health, it is estimated that in the LGBTQ+ community, 20 to 30 percent of people abuse substances and that's compared to only nine percent in the general population.
That's why Austin and Dr. Rickoll will be handing out Sober 4 Today wristbands, and a variety of information about support meetings, treatment, and resources for the next person who wants to follow in Austin's footsteps.
“Sobriety is really, it looks good on me, and I know that, and I feel that, and I want to share that with other people,” said Addison.
You can find out more about Sober 4 Today and about several other mental and physical health programs, at an open house going on Friday 5 p.m. -7p.m., at Integrity Health and Wellness at 914 North Rampart.
And they'll be in the French Quarter all day Saturday.
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