The aisles of Hallmark stores, and other holiday businesses, are lined with a staggering amount of greeting cards. From birthdays to graduations, any occasion can be met with a designed card. 

The global greeting card market was valued at $19.25 billion in 2022, according to Grand View Research. 

But with all that money and effort going into the innumerable genre of cards, cards regarding recovery from addiction have yet to be tackled — leaving the stigma surrounding the topic marred and unapproachable. 

Colorado Behavioral Health Administration (BHA) — through their Lift the Label public awareness campaign — looks to add to the greeting card realm, creating the Recovery Cards Project. The project allows local artists to create and write cards for those going through addiction recovery, dealing with grief of losing a loved one to addiction and other often-hushed topics.

“It takes the words out of you having to know them,” Charlotte Whitney, deputy communications director at BHA, said. “It puts them in a card so you can share with somebody and give them that message of hope, recovery or support they’re trying to solicit from you by stating they’re in recovery.”

The project began in 2019, using a grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to create free cards from local artists. All cards can be ordered without charge on the Recovery Cards Project website, ranging from various topics surrounding recovery. 

Over 100,000 cards have been distributed in the past four years, according to Whitney. Around 40 artists have created cards.

The idea initially stemmed from consistent stories members of the Lift the Label team heard during their public outreach. 

“A lot of folks were saying that people don’t know what to say to them when they tell them they’re in recovery. They don’t know how to support them when they tell them their son died from an opioid overdose,” Whitney said. “It shuts the conversation down because the person on the receiving end just didn’t have the comfortability talking about the subject.”

That shutting down of communication due to a lack of comfort with the topic can make things worse, Denver artist and contributor to this year’s batch of cards, Madison Magor, said. Sometimes that conversation just needs to begin.

“The card is really a catalyst for that,” Magor said. “Sometimes when it’s harder to say what you’re feeling, it’s a little bit easier to write it… It’s really just a conduit to building a deeper connection with your loved ones where addiction isn’t stigmatized for you all to talk about it together.”

Greeting cards are a time-tested, thoughtful gesture, Whitney said.

Magor’s cards this year focused on self-love for those going through recovery, using her digital art. She experienced bouts of shame and intense isolation during her usage of drugs as a young adult, she added, making the situation worse.

Reaching out, even with just a greeting card, can help reduce those feelings of loneliness and help decrease the negativity around the topic, according to Magor.

“Shame really fuels addiction and addiction also thrives in isolation,” she said. “Everything that we’ve been taught in our lives says you’re not supposed to do XYZ. You’re not supposed to do drugs and act like this… So, by destigmatizing it, you help people understand that it isn’t a disease.”

Helpful during the holidays

The most dangerous times of the year for drug-and-alcohol-related deaths in the country are December, January and March, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nearly 91,000 drug deaths have been reported in December since 1999.

While Recovery Cards Project designs are year-round sentiments — often focusing on self-love and reinforcement instead of specific holidays and events — they can be extremely useful during the holiday season, according to BHA. 

“Everybody is navigating different situations,” Whitney said of holiday mental health troubles. “We all experience heighten depression and anxiety around the holidays.”

Denver Department of Public Health & Environment (DDPHE) addressed the holiday fatigue in a press release on Dec. 14, noting that those struggling with mental health and addiction issues during the season should reach out to various resources for support.

“Know that you are not alone, and help is available to those that need it,“ DDPHE Executive Director and Public Health Administrator Bob McDonald said in the release. “While it is our hope that everyone has a joyful holiday season, it’s easy to forget that this season can drain our mental health.”

Those struggling with addiction or recovery can experience significantly harder times during the holidays due to family gatherings, or lack thereof, according to Magor.

“The holidays are such a family and community event. Not everyone has a strong community or support system like that. So, naturally, you have a bunch of people looking toward others like ‘everybody is in their own circle, and I don’t have anyone,'” she said. 

Other people may look at relationships they’ve damaged due to addiction, or relationships others with addictions have damaged, when people are absent during events, Whitney said.

Whitney also pointed toward overdose deaths as another defining, depressing factor during the season.

“It is hard to go into the holidays remembering that there’s less people there than there was the year before,” she said.

Something as simple as a card may be able to help ease that pain or draw a connection. 

Along with Recovery Cards Project, BHA has a directory of resources for those experiencing addiction or mental health crises in Colorado. The detailed list can be found at OwnPath.co.

Those experiencing an emergency mental health crisis can always reach out to 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, a 24/7 crisis line with trained crisis counselors.