First National Summit on Addiction Recovery held in Ottawa

Recovering addicts saysociety needs to better understand their situation to cut down the amount of shame and stigma they experience.

The first National Summit on Addiction Recovery wrapsup Wednesday in Ottawa, organized by the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse.

Presenters such as Michael Bryant,a former Ontario attorney general and self-described recovering alcoholic, said changing the way people see addiction will reduce the number ofaddicts.

"The more people who are not in addiction can identify with people,understand,see they are friends and family and not to be afraid and judged,more people will get better," Bryantsaid Wednesday.

"There are more than five million Canadians living in long-term recovery, holding down jobs, raising family," said Anne Dowsett Johnston, who wrote her bookDrinkabout heralcoholism and the experience of other women.

"We are, in many ways, the great invisible," she said.

Dowsett, one of the founding directors or Faces and Voices of Recovery Canada, said not everyone gains strength from keeping their recovery anonymous.

"We are moving out of church basements and taking it to the streets," she said.

"I am not in any way dissing [Alcoholics Anonymous]but I am saying, no matter how you got to your recovered self, let's be an example to others who are struggling."

A news release issued at the end of the summitsaid 4.4 per cent of Canadians had a substance abuse disorder in 2012, but that getting treatment can be difficultbecause of stigma, hard-to-access treatmentin rural areas or for youth, and a lack of medical detox facilities.

Organizers said they signed a national agreement to improve care across Canada to the level of other chronic illnesses.