• Reflections on language that I have used in writing about people living with addiction

    I recently had a bit of a reckoning about my writing. It wasn’t the first and it won’t the last. This reckoning centred around a trend within my writings of referring to people with addictions with derogatory terms such as “pissheads”, “bagheads”, “crackheads” and other nasty, judgemental epithets. I wish I could say that this is something I left in the past but I drafted a piece yesterday about alcoholism, addiction and the Easter weekend that used those terms for all their distancing and dehumanising effect....

    Apr 11, 2023 - 4 minute read