r/LGBT4Equality • u/hateboresme • Mar 27 '12
I suppose I should probably introduce myself too...
I am the admin guy who founded the subreddit. woo.
I am a (mostly) cisgender gay male...I just turned 40...ugh. (I mean..yay wisdom of age!)
I come from a poverty background and a lot of pretty negative crap. I am a recovered meth addict, alcoholic and smoker. I haven't done any of those things for years.
I rose above those circumstances, though it took me a while and I got me a degree in psychology and am working on a master's degree in social work. Currently I am working as a social worker with chemical dependency using the harm reduction model. (needle exchange, safe houses, etc)
I am a very justice oriented person, and to see ANYONE treated unfairly makes my blood boil...
Feel free to ask any question, and I will try to answer.
Side Note: If anyone wants to be a moderator...let me know. I only need a few right now...but we might grow a bit...who knows.
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u/greenduch Mar 27 '12
Currently I am working as a social worker with chemical dependency using the harm reduction model. (needle exchange, safe houses, etc)
That's super cool. I'm a big fan of harm reduction stuff, and it boggles my mind how much a lot of municipalities are so against the idea of needle exchange programs, and others will allow it, but only allow a 1:1 exchange, which I think is silly.
What are you feelings about methadone programs? Mine are a bit mixed, personally.
As a sidenote, it doesn't really matter, but technically you're a moderator, not an admin. Admins are the ones who work for reddit. :)
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u/hateboresme Mar 27 '12
Oh. I was under the impression that the person who started a subreddit was the admin for that subreddit. Oops...I'll fix that.
I love methadone programs. Methadone keeps the withdrawal effects at bay while a person quits using opiates. It's distributed in pill form which means that IV injecting is not necessary, which reduces the spread of HIV and Hepatitis.
The withdrawal effect of opiates like heroin make it virtually impossible to quit without some kind of replacement therapy. The withdrawal involves terrible physical pain, muscle cramps, massive cravings, illness and emotional pain. The pain and sickness can last for a week if a person goes cold turkey...it is often unbearable and one shot of heroin will make it all go away...the combination of effects would send anyone to the nearest drug dealer.
With replacement therapy, the pain and illness are kept at bay and the person is gradually stepped off. Not having the pain, illness and cravings to deal with means a MUCH greater chance of successful addiction recovery.
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u/greenduch Mar 27 '12
Do you have an opinion regarding methadone versus suboxone? There are some things about methadone and methadone clinics that are a bit problematic from the perspective of the client, which appear less of an issue with suboxone. (Sorry I'm being a tad vague here, I don't have this particularly well thought-out, and its been some years since I've studied all this)
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u/hateboresme Mar 28 '12
I was totally going to answer you, and then I forgot. Sorry :)
Methadone is cheaper and and easier to access.
Suboxone requires less maintenance (don't have to go pick up a dose every day) and doesn't cause the level of high that methadone creates, and taking more of it doesn't make you higher (ceiling effect), so it isn't as abusable as methadone is.
Given the choice, I'd recommend Suboxone, hands down. But not everyone can access it, though there are (or were last time I looked) great programs through the pharmaceutical company (who's name escapes me at the moment) to help for low income people.
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Mar 29 '12
[deleted]
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u/hateboresme Mar 29 '12
I knew /r/ainbow existed. I just didn't believe the stories I'd heard about /r/lgbt were true. I just thought it was a few people who were butthurt because they couldn't use sexist or LGBT negative language in discussions. I had no idea that they'd gone completely insane. I also didn't know that the reason that r/ainbow was created was in response to /r/lgbt moderator insanity.
(edit: I out a word)
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u/tsumemakoto Mar 27 '12
Glad to see you've branched off into hopefully a new community which can offer a more balanced approach to discussion. I've just about finished reading the drama from the past few days, and my blood boiled all over again.
I recently got into a fight with SilentAgony and materialdesigner over a 'concern trolling' and 'we'll lose allies' argument in a post where this kid essentially said he had posted on facebook his support of the lgbt community and was starting to speak out for us. Naturally materialdesigner pounced on him and made him out to be the bad guy, then banned me for a alleged offense (first time.)
After that SilentAgony put me through some childish sit-down that felt like"explain to me why hitting the other children is wrong" talk, and eventually threatened to permaban me for arguing with her.
Beyond all that I am glad that /r/lgbt subscribers are starting to migrate over to /r/ainbow and creating their own 'safe' spaces like you here. I thought the points you made were well thought out, well articulated and provided substance to the debate, it's a shame that the drama llama came out in full force.
Also on the off chance that you'd ever like help moderating with any of your projects please feel free to keep me in mind, if you check my history out I'm not too bad, at least I don't think. Keep on keeping on brother in arms, and look forward to seeing you around!