Professionals talk drugs, addict shares story

In the last installment of a series of talks about prescription medication abuse, a panel of six experts shared their expertise and a recovering addict shared her struggle.

The last segment of Bitter Pill was held in Montana State University-Northern's Hensler Auditorium Thursday night. Wedged among the experts was "G," who used just a letter to maintain anonymity and described herself as a "recovering addict in recovery."

G is part of a 12-step recovery community which relies heavy on anonymity. Her bio, read by the event narrator Amber Spring, a counselor at Northern, said that by remaining anonymous, G hopes to encourage others who have an addiction to prescription pain meds get help.

G told the audience she had an injury on the job, had surgery as a result, was then prescribed pain pills, and her addiction was off and running.

"I just overshot the mark," she said.

By taking pain meds, G said, more pain was caused. The side effects cause more problems, often medical, which will require more meds.

"It just become a vicious cycle," she said.

As she became a slave to her addiction, G said, she lost her marriage, livelihood, her home and her identity. She said she manipulated health care professionals but she didn't believe she had a problem.

"This disease is so powerful that we lie," she said.

G lost weight, she grew sores on her body and she isolated herself. She would sometimes nod off and burn things, she said, and she would send her 70-year-old mother to buy groceries for her children so she wouldn't have to do anything.

G got to a point where she wanted to die, and if it weren't "for the grace of God," she said, she would've succeeded in taking her life.

"I was just taking up oxygen. There was nobody home and the lights were off," she said.

Then, by way of a friend, she said she was hit by a moment of clarity.

"'I think you have a problem,'" G said the friend told her.

G said the moment was "divine intervention," and from there she enrolled in a 12-step program.

But for G the battle was just beginning.

"Detoxing is awful - you feel like you're going to die. The cravings are hell," she said.

G, a native Havreite and Northern graduate, said she's been sober for eight years and credits community support for her recovery.

One of the hurdles, she said, is getting people to believe addiction is a disease that wants people to be "alone, afraid and dead."

"We're not bad people trying to get good; we're good people trying to get well," she said.

Bullhook Community Health Center Nurse Practitioner Suzanne Lockwood echoed G's sentiment, emphasizing that it's important to know that addiction is a disease.

Tammy Ralston, who is certified in pain medication and works in the Specialty Medical Clinic at Northern Montana Hospital, said some kids are born addicted. She has three adopted children, she said, and two of them told her they have a definite reaction when taking medications.

Acknowledging the addiction and moving toward help, panelists agreed, is a big step.

Jesse Bergren, a licensed addiction counselor at White Sky Hope, said there are options for the addict - the tough part is getting them to acknowledge the problem and seeking that help.

"There's a lot of programs out there, but they go underutilized because of the stigma," he said.

Solutions, panelists agreed, are multi-faceted.

Lockwood said she uses medically assisted treatment to help people break free of their addiction, which she added, has an 88 percent success rate. She believed in that medication because it's not addictive.

Ralston said Americans need to change their approach to pain, and doctors need to change how they prescribe medication.

"When you're 70 and wake up with some stiffness, that's normal," she said. "A pill doesn't fix everything."

Ralston said she tells doctors that the doses they prescribe sometimes are not safe.

It's hard telling someone who has been practicing medicine for 28 years what doses to give out, she said.

Educating students at an earlier age was also mentioned as a solution.

Spring said 13 was a common age when kids started doing drugs. She was disappointed that educators from the Havre Public Schools district did not attend any of the presentations.

Stacy Zinn, a group supervisor with the Drug Enforcement Agency in Billings, said kids today are having parties where they bring pills they scrounge up, put them in a bowl and take them randomly.

Zinn said another solution included cracking down on careless providers.

"Who started this problem?" she asked rhetorically. "It's the providers. We'll look at providers who are an easy mark. We'll have discussions with providers who are prescribing recklessly."

Audience and panelists alike agreed - the meeting itself was sign that there's hope. The epidemic doesn't have to be.

"I think we just have to work harder, to treat it as a disease," Zinn said.