Giving Compass' Take:

• An obituary for Madelyn Linsenmeir, 30,  is educative and honest about Linsenmeir's opioid addiction and discusses the real struggles and livelihood of someone affected by addiction. 

• How can medical professionals or individuals touched by the opioid crisis spread more information about addiction without having to do it in an obituary? 

• Read about how the health care system can help address the opioid epidemic. 

To those who don’t understand addiction, an addict is no more than a person who lacks self-control who’d rather walk around in a daze than deal with real life.

They are someone to be judged instead of supported. Nothing is further from the truth.  Research has show that there are a long list of issues that lead to addiction, none of which have anything to do with will power. Addicts are highly likely to have struggled with some form of childhood trauma, PTSD, sexual or physical abuse or amental disorder.

An obituary for a young mother in Vermont, Madelyn Linsenmeir, 30, is going viral because it handles her addiction with honesty and compassion. It also educates people who do not understand the disease while comforting the afflicted.

“In a system that seems to have hardened itself against addicts and is failing them every day, she befriended and delighted cops, social workers, public defenders and doctors, who advocated for and believed in her ‘til the end,” the obituary reads.

The obituary doesn’t paint Linsenmeir not as a junkie, but a complete person who was “hilarious” and “warm,” even in her darkest hours and gives hopes to those struggling with addiction.

It encourages those who do not understand addiction to educate themselves.

Addiction is an overwhelming issue that afflicts not only those who suffer with substance abuse but their families and society as a whole. Reversing the rising rates of addiction deaths in this country will only happen through education and compassion.

Read the full article about opioid addiction by Tod Perry at GOOD Magazine