“Stigma is our number one enemy,” said Pam Imm, board chair for The Courage Center.

The Lexington nonprofit is not a treatment center but provides peer support and evidence-based programs to helping teens and people in their 20s dealing with harmful substance use and recovery from addiction.

The group has produced a tool to help battle the perceptions that stick to these issues.

The Center has partnered with LRADAC and Brookland-Lakeview Empowerment Center in West Columbia to present a documentary on the stigma associated with mental illness and alcohol and drug addiction. The next screening for the documentary, called “Recovery Reframed,” will be on May 31 during a town hall discussion at Brookland-Lakeview.

The event will highlight resources and include an expert panel of hosts discussing stigma and addiction as well as mental health. 

“People don’t get help because it’s associated with shame and they don’t know how they’ll be treated at work, school, etc.,” Imm said.

The documentary has already been shown at the S.C. Statehouse, and future showings will be planned. Imm said the groups involved want to get the word out that recovery is possible.

Many partners and individuals were involved in making the documentary, which was conceived as a way to start conversations about issues with which many people struggle.

The film is family-friendly, so people under 18 years are welcome — as addiction can affect teens as well as adults. 

The documentary focuses on the experiences, but there is a hopeful aspect to it as well. This lines up with The Courage Center, which values lived experience in helping and providing a safe and supportive recovery-focused setting for young people and their families. 

The Center was founded in 2016 by Lexington parents concerned about their adolescent son’s substance misuse. The parents felt isolated when it came to finding people who understood what they were going through and feared their son would return  to old ways after treatment.

“If you’re a parent and little Johnny comes home drunk [after] hanging out with certain people, it’s easy to say it’s a phase or maybe he’ll outgrow it,” Imm said. “The Courage Center is about working with youth and their families.”