Con respecto a las relaciones entre las prácticas

With my Dad’s diagnosis last year, it clearly outlined the struggles with addiction that exist within our family. Family support is lacking because the illness is a result of

alcoholism; family members who struggle with their own addictions no longer know how to relate to my Dad, since the basis of their social interaction was drinking together. With the strict requirement that no access to alcohol is permitted within the home, family members have not come to visit or offer support because they have to be sober. Alcohol and drug abuse are coping mechanisms across several generations of my family and for other First Nations families, as a form of dealing with cultural and identity loss and the transmission of historical trauma.

Another element of the effects on the family is that a diagnosis of Alcohol Dementia comes with emotional turmoil of loss and anger. Some of my Dad’s siblings are angry with him for the extensive damage he has done to himself as a result of his alcoholism. Perpetual loss is a part of the everyday experiences of First Nations families. Within my family, support has been lacking because his siblings cannot cope with another loss because of addictions. Research by Lanting et al. examined aging and dementia for Aboriginal elders who discussed the lack of family support because “changes in family dynamics and loss of filial responsibility, related to the ‘big change in culture’, have disrupted this practice” (2011:114). Family and community do not work together to support and provide care for someone who is ill or aging because of the multiple effects of colonialism. Thus, the cycle of trauma is continued and addiction is used a way to cope especially since it is difficult for my family to witness my Dad’s health decline.

The lack of family support conflated by the lack of existing services to provide support for the individual diagnosed and family members contributes to the conspiracy of silence and stigma attached to addictions. As discussed in research focused on doctors who offered medical services to First Nations communities, “topics difficult to discuss and sometimes steeped in stereotyping were abuse, addiction, anger, sexuality, abortion, and end-of-life directives: Alcohol abuse was a difficult area because it’s part of the

stereotypic view that we have of Native patients, and they know it” (Kelly and Brown, 2002:1649). The stigma attached to illness because of addictions within First Nations communities means that it is not openly discussed. As the primary caregiver, it is difficult to talk about my Dad’s illness because of the moral judgment and fear of perpetuating a stereotype. But I have realized the importance of my research because addictions and the long-term illnesses that can result are not examined from the everyday lived experiences of those who are affected. Discussing my Dad’s Alcohol Dementia is also important because there are no existing resources for caregivers like myself that include an analysis of the implications of colonization connected to health across several generations.

Although it is emotionally and socially difficult to examine my Dad’s illness as my research focus, I know that it is better to discuss it than to continue the silence of

suffering, especially since “medical technology is effective in curing many acute

biological pathologies, but it is not designed to address the social structural problems that wreak havoc on the bodies of poor people” (Bourgois and Schonberg, 2009:304). The stigma attached to not only my Dad being a First Nations man diagnosed with a chronic illness because of addictions, but there is also stigma attached to his disability and dementia. The complexity of multiple stigmas is the recognition that “stigma is a

branding, a way that society marks us for transgressing the bounds of what is considered normal” (Grinker, 2007:69). The stigma of this illness because my Dad does not fit the social expectations of society to take good care of himself, to work to contribute to society and to be a good parent and spouse, has allowed me to critically understand my Dad’s use of alcohol as a form of erasure and to manage his suffering on a daily basis. When stigma exists in connection to social and medical expectations, it highlights the flaws within the health care system, recognizing that, “…the health disparities realized by Indigenous peoples in almost all sectors of life as compared with their non-Indigenous counterparts, stem from or are related to colonial disruptions and ongoing erosion of human rights” (de Leeuw et al., 2009:285). Stigma is connected to colonialism in that the silence connected to addictions for First Nations peoples including my own family is that the shame and self-deprecation we feel is our fault for not meeting the moral regulations for health. The shaming treatment from health care providers is an example of this erosion of the human right to dignity. Alcohol Dementia is an example of the everyday lived experiences of First Nations families and individuals who are faced with the complexities of illness because of addiction. Addictions have been a part of several generations of my family and the stigma attached to it leads to no one discussing its impact on them, how it is used to cope for each generation and how it is nested in the colonized experiences.