Submitted by Angona Saha
Six years ago, on March 1st, 2017, Darcy Patterson lost her jovial daughter, Kirsten Yamaoka, to a drug overdose. Kirsten was a bright young girl. She was an efficient model employee at UPS. She loved reading, music and had healthy lifestyle choices. She loved her family and was loved by everyone in the family.
While in middle school, Kirsten was exposed to a whole new world. She became friends with people who were older and introduced her to substances. As her high school progressed, her substance use became substance abuse. There were times when she recovered, and the real Kirsten emerged. After many attempts at rehabs, stints in jail, a stay in a mental health ward, and anguishing life of a substance abuser, Kirsten lost her life to an overdose.
The social stigma and unawareness around substance abuse and overdoses often attract youngsters. Most of those are also managing a mental health issue concurrently. Being unaware and not being able to tackle the situation leads to addiction.
Addiction is a slow process, and the body gradually becomes dependent on a particular kind of drug. This dependency starts affecting the brain and behavior. Being aware and educated about drugs, addiction and prevention could play significant roles in combating the stigma around addiction and saving lives.
One would never want to imagine how her mother felt on that dreadful night. Instead of only grieving for the rest of her life, Darcy decided to dedicate her life to those who are suffering from addiction. It is worth mentioning that apart from being a mother of two lovely kids, Darcy is also a nurse by profession.
To be sure, some people might easily judge someone fighting addiction or their family. Our societal ideas of being good and bad and unawareness about addiction and drugs put substance users and abusers in boxes that continue to hinder forward movement with stigma and shame involved. Some might also ask how she could not make better choices if Kirsten was so bright and wise. What was her mother doing?
To answer, I would say that it was Darcy who noticed changes in Kirsten’s behavior first. She would skip school, stay aloof and sleep for long hours. Like a concerned mother, Darcy decided to seek help. From reaching out to counselors to everyone else, Darcy did everything a parent could do. Nothing helped. That’s what addiction does. It takes one away from everything and everyone. It makes you forget who you were or who you are becoming.
Significant activism around addiction and substance abuse has happened. But for a grieving mother like Darcy, she reached out to people suffering from addiction with tools of help like conducting opioid education and distributing free Narcan nasal sprays, as well as Fentanyl and Xylazine test strips.
We often fail to acknowledge that, apart from active protests, tools of care and empathy can also help win a battle. Someone like Darcy, without caring about social stigma, her struggles and loss, wanted to help grieving mothers like her.
Having awareness about substances, addiction and overdose management are some concrete ways of supporting families who have lost their loved ones to overdose. Using social media, we are trying to create awareness about Narcan nasal sprays among the younger generation of Reno. Demonstrative reels and videos about naloxone sprays, fentanyl and xylazine test strips, are small steps toward spreading this word.
Darcy and others aim to ensure that Reno stops losing young lives like Kirsten. Being a student of Gender, Race and Identity studies, I wanted to be a part of this mission to help communities and share the story of this strong mother and activist.
Angona Saha is a graduate student at the University of Nevada, Reno and wants to spread awareness about opioid overdose and measures to tackle an overdose situation by sharing the story of Darcy Paterson.
