As I was speaking with my brother to see when he would arrive, he told me I should watch tonight's Intervention on A&E. It's an In-Depth view on Hillbilly Heroin. For those of you not attuned to life outside the big cities, instead of doing real heroin, opium, and other illicit drugs, the people in West Virginia, Kentucky, Southern Ohio, and others have moved to going to pain clinics to get oxycodone, oxycontin, percocets, methadone, morphine, and other prescription pills. My baby brother is a recovering addict.
It is because of him, I hope to work as an addiction specialist in the future. I've seen how easy it is to become victim to pills. Even taking as many as 4 percocets which have been legally procured, can start an addiction. My brother's started with a dirtbike accident at the age of 15 and only end three years ago when he was 22. He went to an addiction specialist after a year and they put him on suboxone. I never understood why Dr. Drew Pinsky was so against the quote/unquote addiction treatment. After seeing how my brother reacted on the drug and then almost killing himself by flipping his Silverado one night while under the influence of the drug, I needed no more proof.
My brother was then hooked on the suboxone. He went through his second detox at home in December 2009, three months short of his two year mark for being clean.
His first detox started mere days before I moved to North Carolina. He was kicking so hard and the only way we could make sure he couldn't use while my mom and stepdad helped me move was to strip him of car keys, cell phone, and money. He was locked in the house with no outside contact. He went through every step of opiate detox.
His second detox was worse than the first. He flew to Florida two weeks before Christmas and quit the suboxone that first night. It took longer to get the treatment drug out of his system than the initial drugs. He started kicking within hours when he quit hydros, oxy, percs, etc. It took 4 days to start kicking the second time. He was still dope sick when he flew back to West Virginia.
When my brother found out I was having shoulder surgery, the first thing he told me was, "If you get hooked on pills I'll kick your ass."
I'm happy to say, due to my doctors office's policy and my inability to know where to find more pills, I did not become addicted to the pain pills.
During the last year, I also had a friend become addicted to pain pills. I have now helped two people during their addiction and I want to help more. Granted, I don't know how my friend is now or if she is still sober, because she just dropped me from her world. My mom mentioned that she may have relapsed. That is probably true. I can tell when some one is an addict. No matter what their drug of choice is, I can tell. Alcoholism, coke heads, pill heads, heroine addicts, they all have similar ticks.
If you are or know someone who is an addict, then please get help. Drug/alcohol abuse is not the answer. You are killing yourself and hurting not only yourself, but your family too. My brother's addiction helped kill my grandmother. He was using when she passed away and he feels a lot of guilt because of that.
Talk to someone. When you get your thoughts and feeling out in the open you are forced to deal with them. When you deal with them, you can learn to cope through other mechanisms. Go to meetings, go to church, make new friends.
My neighbors are great people. I love their personalities and hanging out with them is always an adventure. But they have to be drinking from the time they get home on Friday until the time they go to bed on Sunday night. They may not see their alcoholic ways, but they have to drink. My dad is the same way. He doesn't drink 24/7 but when he drinks, it's never just one or two drinks. He's an alcoholic. My Aunt Kathy was the first person to point out what he was. My cousin is the same way. He is 6 weeks younger than me and we grew up like twins. Aunt Kathy sat us both down two weeks before my 21st birthday and told us how we needed to act when we were drinking. Granted we both had been drinking for years before we were legal, but still we needed to hear that as long as we were responsible there was no problem in drinking.
I love drinking, I love the warm feeling that fills me and how fun everyone is to be around. When I was 21 I was the last person standing after a long day of drinking. I could hold my alcohol like no one else. For this I was a hit with all my guy friends. I was the go to drinking buddy. I used to drink 3-4 glasses of wine a night after college. It was my wind down. I continued this until sometime last year. When you have dealt with and been around addicts like I have, you have to know how to control the urges.
I've done my share of drugs and been an alcoholic. I've watched both parents with a nicotine habit. My grandparents with nicotine habits. Cigarettes are a drug to me. Nicotine is far worse than heroine because the government says they are safe enough to regulate. Addiction is addiction.
I'm here for anyone who needs help. I may not know you, I may not be right beside you. But I can help you get to someone close to you.
Peace & Love My Friends.
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