It has been a busy few days at Florida Springs Wellness and Recovery Center. Bay County marked International Overdose Awareness Day, and local officials showed up here at Florida Springs to sign a proclamation recognizing September as National Recovery Month, the thirty-seventh year that has happened nationally.
Recovery Takes Time, and That’s Still Success
Our CEO, Amy Hancock, was there for the signing, alongside representatives from the Panama City Mayor’s Office, the Panama City Beach Mayor’s Office, and State Senator Jay Trumbull’s office. Amy talked about Substance Use Disorder being a chronic disease process. I always find that framing so important. People who seek treatment don’t always stay sober forever with no relapse, but they’re much more likely to be sober five and ten years down the line than someone who never sought help at all. A proclamation doesn’t measure that kind of progress. It’s not built to. But it’s still worth something to hear a mayor’s office and a state senator’s office say, out loud and on the record, that recovery counts even when it’s slow and uneven, and that it’s still worth signing your name to.
What Fighting Fentanyl Actually Looks Like
That same day, our Medical Director, Dr. Raymond Pomm, went on News Channel 7’s Medical Monday to talk about something harder to sit through than a proclamation. He explained that fentanyl is fifty to a hundred times more potent than heroin, and that it’s turning up in counterfeit pills made to look like ordinary prescriptions, not just in street drugs people already expect to be dangerous. He described what that actually looks like when someone overdoses on it. There’s no gasping, no panic, no moment where someone can say something’s wrong. “It’s just stop breathing,” he said. “And done.”
That’s not an easy thing to hear, and I don’t think it’s supposed to be. Dr. Pomm’s point was that everyone should know how to carry and use Narcan, not just first responders or people already in treatment. It saves lives. It gives families something to actually do instead of just worrying. And it buys someone the chance to choose recovery tomorrow instead of not getting a tomorrow at all.
Two Events, One Point
I like that those two things happened in the same week. A proclamation is a nice gesture, and I mean that sincerely, not as a knock on it. But Narcan in someone’s glove box is the thing that actually keeps a person alive long enough for a gesture like that to eventually mean something to them.
Recovery Month itself doesn’t get anyone sober. Nobody sees a proclamation and decides today’s the day. What both of yesterday’s events actually do is smaller than that. They put something real in front of people: a doctor’s plain description of how fast fentanyl can take a life, a reminder to carry Narcan, and a public acknowledgment that this disease doesn’t care how long recovery takes. They say it out loud instead of leaving it unsaid for another year.
You Don’t Owe September Anything
If you’re the person this month is technically about, you don’t owe September anything. You don’t have to get sober today just because a mayor signed something, and you don’t have to wait for a milestone month to matter before you take your own struggle seriously either. Recovery doesn’t run on a calendar. It runs on whatever the actual moment is when you decide you’re done waiting.
But if you’re looking for a reason to reach out, carrying Narcan or making that first call, this week gave you two of them. Florida Springs Wellness and Recovery Center is in Panama City, and we meet people exactly where they are, no judgment attached. If you or someone you love is struggling, you’re not alone, and recovery is still possible. You don’t need the reason before you pick up the phone.
