Adam McInnis is a nurse practitioner who lives in London, Ont., and specializes in addictions medicine. He also has first hand experience of addiction, and is eight years sober. In addition to his own clinical work, Mcinnis works as a nurse adviser with a provincial initiative in Ontario designed to improve care for people experiencing addiction. He spoke with People First Radio about some of his experiences both personal and professional.
McInnis says he started experimenting with substances including cannabis and tobacco around ages 12 and 13, but it was the death of his father from a terminal illness when McInnis was 16 that led his drinking to spiral.
He shared a story from when his dad was quite sick, and McInnis and his brothers would take turns being with him in Toronto.
“ At one point I had returned to London and I wanted to forget, like what was going on with my dad,” he said. “It was a St. Patrick’s Day weekend… I came home and just drank and drank and drank…I didn’t want to think about what was happening at that time, and I have that itch where if I have one, I’ll continue to drink.”
McInnis says he ended up falling and splitting his head open, and was taken to the hospital.
“ I was, pardon my French, one of those maybe asshole kids that was causing behavior issues in the emergency department, et cetera, but couldn’t coherently explain why I was acting the way I was acting,” he said.
“From what I was told, a lot of the security staff, nursing physicians, et cetera, treated me as, okay…this difficult 16-year-old drinking his face off, and not kind of seeing the whole picture.”
Mcinnis says his mother was there that night trying to advocate for him, and explain to people that McInnis’ dad had a month to live.
“Many of the folks I work with don’t always have that advocate, on their side. So. It’s one of the stories I try and share is, you know that person in front of you has a full story,” he said. “Treat everyone with kind of the kindness and compassion that everyone should get.”
McInnis said his journey of recovery wasn’t a straight line from point A to point B.
“ It wasn’t linear,” he said. “I think substance use, it never is.”
He said one of the ways he works to advocate for better care is to share his own experiences with addiction.
“ I find stories very impactful. I could read a slide, a PowerPoint of how to do a diazepam protocol or. Buprenorphine induction, for instance, but that will only carry us so far,” he said. “So for me, part of my work is of. sharing my story to try and affect change, and even talking about being sober for eight years is one of the little ways that I like to try and bring the conversation to the forefront.”
“We see the impact of substance use on our healthcare system, on marginalized folks in all areas, and it’s massive. But we don’t do enough to talk about it, in my opinion. We’ve done better to discuss mental health, which is intertwined with substance use disorders. We’ve done better at discussing those sorts of things, but often, addiction just holds this very kind of stigmatizing label.”
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