Muskingum Behavioral Health road to recovery radio ads

ZANESVILLE, Ohio-Muskingum Behavioral Health is unveiling a new radio drug prevention campaign by telling the story of those recovering from drug addiction.

The ads will feature four recovering drug addicts telling their stories on how they are beating addiction. C.E.O. of Muskingum Behavioral Health Steve Carrel said he wants the ads to show people that addicts can recover from drug addiction.

“Everyone of them said I don’t know anybody in recovery,” said Carrel. “Show me them. I only know the people who are using, who are stealing, who are doing things that are antisocial. We have four people in recovery who are basically talking about different parts of recovery.”

Carrel said three of the people speaking are recovering heroin addicts and one is a recovering alcoholic. He said people don’t know about the success stories because ‘I’m a recovering addict’ isn’t a thing most people struggling with addiction want to talk about. This leads to people thinking they will always be an addict.

“Recovery’s possible, long-term recovery’s possible,” said Carrel. “So I want to give hope to people who have an addiction. You can get into recovery. I want to give hope to family members because a lot of times they feel hopeless.”

Carrel said Muskingum Behavioral Health hopes the radio ads will just be a start. He hopes there will be a television version of recovering addicts telling their stories soon