Member-only story
Leaning into Vulnerability with CAiR
Anyone who doesn’t believe the power of the stigma to hold people locked in addiction hasn’t met Darin Valdez or heard his story.
Darin is the founder and executive director of Colorado Artists in Recovery — a Denver-based nonprofit with the mission to help people find their artistic creativity as a pathway to healing from addiction and other mental health challenges. Like a lot of us, Darin’s dedication to helping people is born from his determination to pay it forward. Just a few snowy winters ago, Darin nearly died from exposure as he lived on the streets and battled a debilitating meth addiction.
What kept Darin from getting help? Why did he nearly freeze to death in an outdoor stairwell in December of 2013?
He was too ashamed to ask his family for help.
Ashamed of his addiction. Ashamed he was wasting his business degree from CU. Ashamed of how far he had fallen.
The stigma was killing him.
When he did return home to his family in Louisville on that Christmas Day, he didn’t stay. He returned to the streets of Denver because he didn’t think he deserved the overwhelming love of the family he had deserted.
