Spearheading a community effort to raise awareness and education across the District, Rhonda Johnson corralled recovery advocates on the National Mall for the annual DC Walk 4 ReCovery, celebrating the strength and resilience of those recovering from drug and alcohol abuse.
“The DC Walk 4 Recovery is very important because people need to understand addiction and mental health goes together. Nobody is taking the time to understand the ‘why’ behind a lot of the things that people are suffering from, [regarding] mental health, depression, the PTSD, and trauma,” said Johnson, an author and certified peer specialist consultant for Now Hope 2 Reality.
She explained how drug and alcohol abuse often results from unaddressed trauma.
“So what [people] do is they self-medicate. They do drugs to escape reality. We have a lot of homelessness, domestic violence, [and other issues]. What the DC Walk 4 Recovery wants to do is to let people know, there’s hope. There is help and there is treatment out here,” she told The Informer.
Falling on the heels of the Chief Medical Examiner’s report showing opioid deaths hitting a record high of 518 fatalities over 2023, community leaders are actively seeking a comprehensive approach to address the root causes of addiction while underscoring the intersection between addiction and mental health.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, common risk factors are often attributed to both mental disorders and substance use disorders (SUDs) including environmental factors such as trauma or stress, which can often cause genetic changes passed down through generations. These genetics may have a prevalent hand in the development of SUDs or a mental disorder.
Further, studies indicate that people suffering mental disorders such as depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), may use alcohol or drugs as a means to cope.
Ayo Handy-Kendi, known as the Breath Sekou (master teacher) and founder of Black Love Day, facilitated a meditation session for DC Walk 4 Recovery participants, emphasizing how breathing practices are crucial for mental health and recovery. Handy-Kendi knows firsthand the power of breath, using it to triumph over her own former battles with addiction.
“I am in my 32nd year of my recovery from cocaine, alcohol, and marijuana from the time I was 19. I’m 72 now. For the last 50 years, I’ve been in and out of meditation practices and they all started with the breath,” explained Handy-Kendi, affectionately called “Mama Ayo.”
She said the breath is key to many practices and life itself.
“If you think of the consciousness of every single modality, the breath is there. So be it meditation, tai chi, yoga, martial arts, the foundation is the breath because the breath stills us, it calms the nerves and focuses the mind,” Handy-Kendi explained. “If you want to be peaceful and totally in the zone of connecting on a higher conscious level, our breathing does all of that. So part of my being not just a survivor in this world of recovery, but I became a thriver because I learned breath techniques at age 19.”
The breath expert and advocate attributes her success in SUD recovery and current standard of health in her older age to the lifelong practice of meditation. She shared that she has been fortunate to share with people around the world a system she created titled “optimum life pathology,” which allows people to “breathe deeply, fully, and consciously.”
“[When I was young], there was a lot of anger in me. I was depressed over the years and all of that stuck in my body. I used [drugs] to stimulate me, but I always came back to the breath every time. It made the total difference in who I am today,” Mama Ayo said. “A lot of my [old] hang-out friends have high blood pressure, diabetes, and a lot of health issues like cancer or asthma, but because I kept working with my breathing throughout that time, I don’t have any of that. I have energy, I move, and I don’t have the urge to use [drugs and alcohol]. So I encourage people if they want to release the trauma that’s stuck in our bodies, they’ve got to go deep. We have to breathe through it, to get to it.”
District resident Michael Turner felt compelled to join the Walk 4 Recovery event as a means to celebrate his journey to sobriety.
“I am a recovering addict myself. I have been clean for almost two years and I’m doing wonderful. I have a good job now, I’m not using drugs and am staying the course of my own recovery,” Turner told The Informer. “Staying connected to other people besides myself motivates me a lot. The primary purpose is to stop using. Once you realize what your primary purpose is, there’s God. God has saved me, from me.”
Johnson, the founder and lead organizer for the 2024 DC Walk 4 ReCovery looks forward to her continued efforts to support community advocacy, helping those residents struggling to find their journey to sobriety.
In addition, Johnson’s work outside of the annual walk also seeks to inform and empower.
“I’m an author, and I have books that I publish. My latest book is ‘The Neuroplasticity Implicit Bias Theory Explained,’ and it explains why — from the crack-cocaine epidemic — why we go through what we go through,” Johnson said. “I’m a survivor of the crack-cocaine epidemic who understands. I can’t give up now.”
The Walk is absolutely an amazing event!! Great article thanks for sharing the vision!
We need to concentrate on our youth crimes .Drugs addictions arent going anywhere or drugs coming into the United States what does protest or walks acomplish?
Waste of time our youths behaviors are more important thefts ,carjacking and murders.Opiods are backseat,people are gonna use what they want,you can’t stop addiction by walks or talks people want to have too themselves,it’s not against the law to use drugs only sale drugs is against the law!
Peace and real reality check.p
Great Article. Thank you for capturing the why with hope.