Hill Recovery

Tranquilizers, unfortunately, tend to grab the brain’s circuitry very quickly, then rapidly require the user to increase, their dose to maintain the same effect, this is called tolerance. The brain’s receptor sites have become accustomed to the xanax, valium, ativan or other benzodiazepines being taken and are requiring even larger doses to create the same affect. The withdrawal syndrome is incredibly uncomfortable. It also must be done slowly and under the care of a trained physician.  The symptoms will usually include severe insomnia, agitation, anxiety and possible panic attacks, and a sufferer will often feel that they are either going “crazy” or dying. Other symptoms usually include loss of appetite, Inability to concentrate and sometimes, hallucinations.  Seizures are also a possibility. Therefore, it is obvious why this should be done very slowly and only under a physician’s direct supervision. Hill Alcohol and Drug Treatment has teamed with Pomerado Hospital to accomplish this process, with the minimum of discomfort and the maximum of safety. After being assessed, patients are admitted to Pomerado Hospital where……….  

After stabilization the patient can be discharged to the Hill Alcohol and Drug Treatment Program to continue the gradual reduction in dose with the support of an understanding staff.

Q:    Rocky, why is it so difficult for some people to stop using pain medications? A:     Medications like Vicodin, Norco and Oxycontin can have very different effects on different individuals.  Most people will get relief from their pain and become drowsy.  Others will achieve pain relief but will also experience a sense of euphoria, well being and increased energy.  This second group often includes those who have serious difficulty when they try to stop taking the medication.            Recent research indicates that the Mu and Kappa receptor sites in the brain can be transformed with prolonged use of opiate medication.  When the painkiller is reduced or removed, the individual will, very shortly, begin an extremely uncomfortable withdrawal syndrome.  These symptoms include loss of concentration, cramps, nausea, feeling cold sweats, insomnia, panic attacks and complete loss of appetite and energy.  In some people these symptoms can continue for an extended period of time and recurrent thoughts of suicide sometimes appear.         It is important to get professional help despite the paralyzing shame and fear that usually accompanies this addiction. New medications are now available to eliminate the withdrawal symptoms and make the withdrawal process manageable.  You will not be able to stay ahead of the withdrawal process without professional help as your tolerance to the pain medication continues to escalate.  Medical withdrawal and recovery offer help and hope.             Q:    Rocky, how does someone know if they have crossed into addiction? A:     Defining addiction is actually very easy.  Contrary to what most people believe, it has almost nothing to do with how much or how often you drink or use.  A ‘yes’ answer to any of these five questions usually indicates that you have moved into addiction. First – Is there anyone who loves you who has expressed concern regarding your substance use?   Second – Can you predict, with relative certainty, your behavior or quantity after you start drinking or using? Third – Have you ever had legal, job, health, or financial problems due to your substance use and despite those problems continued to drink or use at some point in the future. Forth – Have you ever done or said things to a loved one, under the influence, that you regret? Fifth – Have you put yourself at risk after using?         Lastly, if you really want to know, ask your children how they feel about your drinking or drug use.  If they feel safe enough, they’ll tell you the truth. 

        It is important to remember that addiction is readily treatable and recovery is a phone call away! 

Methamphetamine is a central nervous system stimulant often referred to as crank, speed or meth.  Those who abuse it are called “tweakers” for their tendency towards unpredictable, impulsive, irrational behaviors that often include paranoia, agitation and insomnia.           Meth users are at risk for a myriad of health problems as the drug blocks the re-absorption of adrenaline in their brain.  Using Meth is much like going out to a car, starting the engine, placing it in neutral and then revving the engine for three or four days. In the body, this often results in “speed bumps” (skin sores), rotting teeth, gastric problems, loss of weight and sometimes heart attacks or strokes.           Those under the influence will have dilated (enlarged) pupils or they may grind their teeth, stay up all night working on “projects” and eventually become delusional.                    Meth is highly addictive, as the user seeks to recreate the initial sense of power, energy, control and hyper sexuality from the first use.  Ironically, with continued use, all these same sensations reverse and the addict is left hopeless and helpless.  Meth makes you look old very quickly.           Although there is no “normal” withdrawal phase, meth users experience a profound sense of dysphoria and depression that usually drives their return to the meth in a futile attempt to feel “normal” again.           Normalcy returns only after a period of abstinence from the drug and concurrent release of repressed emotions. Being surrounded by others in recovery who can inspire the hope of a new life and the opportunity to feel love, joy and enthusiasm without a return to the meth.           The recovery rate for meth users, when provided with quality treatment services that address physical, psychiatric and spiritual issues, are as high as sixty percent. Without some form of therapeutic intervention, users spiral into legal, financial, health, job and always family problems.           Our recovery ranch provides a serene, safe place for users to reclaim their sense of self-worth, initiative and trust. Develop a peer support system that encourages recovery maintenance and an alternative to isolation and loneliness.  The animals at the ranch, serve as a safe alternative to human contact.  Most alcoholics and drug abusers feel better with animals than they do people.  Bridging that gap is the outcome of the camaraderie created between all the residents, animals and humans.

A recent guest commentary in the Californian spoke to the significant increase in patients being treated for addiction to painkillers.  Our experience at Hill Alcohol and Drug Treatment mirrors those of your columnist.  Addiction to pain medications like Vicodin, Norco, Oxycontin, Fentanyl, Dilaudid and other opiates has increased dramatically.           However, the truly exciting story is the giant strides science has begun to make in understanding the bio-chemical mechanisms of addictive behavior and the creation of harm reduction alternatives.  For so many years, all addictive behaviors were seen as either failings of morality or will power.  Our societal strategy reflected those beliefs by passing laws that focused on punishing the addict into “right behaviors” Campaigns like “just say no” appealed to those who sought an easy, quick, cheap solution.  For those who didn’t say “no” we have elected to allocate our tax dollars to incarcerate them with those well versed in minimal values and anti-social behaviors. Three years ago we, at Hill Alcohol and Drug Treatment (with great skepticism and much research) began to use a new medication for pain pill addiction that promised no high to chase for the user, no tolerance by the brain to drive the user to higher and higher doses and most importantly, blocked the effects of the pain killers. It promised to eliminate both the acute (short term) and chronic (long term) withdrawal syndrome that had previously tormented our patients with depression, loss of energy, appetite and ultimately, any enthusiasm for life.  They couldn’t work; play with their kids or even laugh.  We started our first patients on this medication with the assistance of Dr. Jack Druet, pain management specialist and one of only three local physicians certified to prescribe this new medication.  The results were startling.  The first word out of each patient’s mouth was the same “I feel normal for the first time in so many years”.  Our recovery rate for opiate addicts skyrocketed from 5% to 95%.  We had nurses, major league ballplayers, teachers and many others who had been struggling with shame and fear finally able to “feel normal” not high, not hooked, just normal. Most had started their addiction with a surgery or chronic pain condition and their physician’s treatment was completely appropriate.  Unfortunately, the Mu and Kappa receptor sites in their brain didn’t care about theories of “appropriate pain management”. Their brains were genetically pre-wired to produce an important response to the prescribed dose of analgesic.  Instead of feeling pain relief and falling asleep, they experienced a stimulation that, atypically, kept them awake at night.  From the outset, their biological response was the opposite from the majority of the population.  Likewise, their withdrawal experience was much more severe and long-lived.  This new medication is called Suboxone.  It’s really just the combination of two very old medications into a new hope for hundreds of thousand of those who find themselves unable to get past the months of post acute withdrawal that follows cessation of pain killers. Increasingly, science is working with the treatment community to find new ways to help those who, years ago were deemed “hopeless”. The results will save countless families the heartache of watching their loved one head off to jail, prison or the morgue.  Few families have been untouched by the disease of addiction.  Hope has never been greater in our field Rocky Hill is the Director of Hill Alcohol and Drug Treatment and Three Hills Sober Living.  He has provided treatment services to the Valley for over twenty years.   Rocky Hill, MA, NCAC IIExecutive Director

Eighty-two percent of teens will have used some type of mood altering substance before they graduate from high school according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The challenges facing parents have never been greater and the resources to help fewer.  Parents must somehow try to predict if their child’s use is simply a phase or if they will fall into that 15 to 20% of the population that is destined to experience ever-increasing problems.  Likewise, teens are confronted with peers for whom “partying”, is the norm. While the indicators for predicting addiction are inexact, there are certain factors that can give parents a far greater ability of anticipating how alcohol or drugs may affect their child’s future. These criteria include: 

1. Is there a significant family history of alcohol or drug abuse in the natural family?  The closer the history of abuse to the parents (especially the same sex parent) the greater the probability.  Addiction clearly has some basis in family DNA and genetics. Have alcohol or other drugs caused problems for family members on either parent’s side?

2. Has your teen had any past negative consequences related to substance use with a subsequent return to the use again despite parental discipline and or the pain of those consequences?  Any return to a behavior, after experiencing pain, is an abnormal response and indicates how important the teen’s substance use has become to him or her.  The types of problems include:  school, health, legal, relationship, job or financial and constitute the clearest and most consistent indicator of future problems.  How much or how often your child has used alcohol or drugs, is much less important, than what happens when they do use. Most importantly—do they go back again?

3. Although this is rarely shared with a parent: does your teen express clearly the emotional benefits of their use of any psychoactive substance?   In other words, do they tell you how much they like drinking or doing drugs?

 If a parent has concerns after answering these three questions, it is imperative to assess your situation, while also, uniting in a strategy for the future.  Doing nothing will often create a division between the parents allowing the teen’s problems to worsen; as the parents become increasingly polarized.  Do my spouse and I fight over the best way to respond? We are available to help parents navigate this very emotional time. Hill Alcohol and Drug Treatment has had tremendous success utilizing wilderness programs to help kids break out of this destructive cycle.  We have many teens and parents who have experienced this life changing treatment and are willing to share their stories of change and recovery with you. We also have an adolescent family night geared to help the entire family in the recovery process. Know that you did not cause your Child’s addiction. You simply are not that powerful!!

  Defining addiction is not difficult but ask twenty people and the answers will vary from “somebody who has to use all day” to “when alcohol or drugs keep you from working”.

            The truth is that addiction to substances or other addictive behaviors has nothing to do with frequency, quantity or the ability to stop.Addiction is easily recognized and defined by two simple questions.   Does the use of the substance (or other addictive behavior) cause problems in life functioning (or pain) and does the individual return to the use (behavior) again despite the negative consequences.  If the answer is yes, then that is addiction.
Denial will usually rear its head to argue forcefully and cogently that it couldn’t be addiction because (pick one):

1. I can quit anytime I want.
2. If you had the stressors in your life, you would need to use like I do.
3. When I get as bad as (fill in the blank) then I’ll know I have a problem.
4. Addicts are people who lack willpower (or morality) and I am far too intelligent and in control of my life to ever let anything control me!

          If you want to know if there is addiction in a family – ask the kids if mom or dad’s use of alcohol, marijuana etc. ever bothers them.  If the answer is affirmative, you usually don’t need to go any further.   It is not normal to return to a behavior if it is causing problems for us and yet, with addiction we see, bright, resourceful, creative people return to their substance use, despite horrendous accidents and / or traumatic domestic disturbance. Behaviors completely contrary to the individuals values and, ultimately, to the detriment of the people they love the most in this world.
         Addiction is powerful enough to turn anyone into a monster.  We are only now learning the whys through science.  However, the whats have been available since the advent of Alcoholic Anonymous.  People do recover from this disease and their recovery holds a beacon of hope to those still lost in its mind numbing haze.  Causes and new cures will be covered in future articles.

In 1982, I listened intently to a 28 year old man sincerely explain to me why he simply couldn’t be an alcoholic because he only drank beer.  I had been asked to convince him that he was, in fact, an alcoholic and that the hospital’s treatment program was available to help him get sober.  Being only a few months over a year sober myself, I could only tell him of my own addiction, desperation, transformation and sobriety.

            Medically he was not in great shape.  He was in kidney failure and his liver and stomach lining were equally impaired.

            I watched as his family tearfully begged him to enter the treatment program and I thought of the looks in my own family’s eyes when I came home “loaded” again.   Why could we all see the obvious and he couldn’t (or wouldn’t)?

Denial is based in not having any other answer for the feeling of emptiness, loneliness and inadequacy, that alcohol so readily and consistently eliminates.  I knew why he didn’t want to admit the obvious…he didn’t have a solution to this dilemma.  Paradoxically, until he would quit the alcohol and surrender to another course of emotional relief, he was doomed.  Just another “hopeless” alcoholic.

            Four days later he died.  A friend had snuck some beer into his hospital room.  His family was now absent their beloved husband, father, brother and son.

Certainly, denial is influenced by shame, control and other factors, but, ultimately, the alcoholic/addict just doesn’t have any other vehicle available to get them from point A to Point B, discomfort to comfort.

             I still can’t help but wonder what the outcome would have been if he had joined me (and so many others) in pursuit of a fulfilling, complete, immersion in the promises that recovery offers.

            Life (and death) twist so delicately on those moments of decision.

DELAY IS THE WORST FORM OF DENIAL.