O.k. Maybe the title of this blog seems a little bit outrageous. Primarily, this was to get your attention (worked, huh?).
In a group I was presenting the other day I asked the question, ‘how much’ did you spend daily on your habit? This $100.00 was one answer I received; although most thought this to be a low estimate.
So, let’s do the math. $100.00 a day X 365 days in the year, makes for a grand total of $36,500. Hmm, X 10 years we are now up to $365,000! Ah, I would like to buy a house please.
Nice chunk of change, huh?
I have found over the years that when people are actively using seldom do they have enough money for anything other than their drug(s) of choice.
Looking back to my full-time days on the comedy scene (stand-up/comedy writer) I can remember times when a buddy that made $1000.00 to $1500.00 for a weekend at the local comedy clubs would take a swing by the radio station where I worked the morning show to ‘borrow’ a couple of bucks to get back to their apartment.
Money all gone.
Amazing how fast the money can go is it not? Hotel rooms, cocaine, plenty of booze, friends (actually using buddies), etc, etc, etc.
For some people financial ruin can expedite their getting into recovery. This reminds me of the patient one time that said to me, ‘thank God I never got bagged for a DUI when I was actively drinking years ago.’ My initial thought which I kept to myself at the time was, ‘yea, thank God, if that had happened maybe you would have gotten into sobriety sooner, huh?’
Families need to proceed with extreme caution when a loved one with an active addiction issue asks them for money. What is the money for? “Oh, I need it for transportation to the detox.” Really? I’ll be more than happy to drive you there instead.
I do not doubt for a second that some families truly believe that by giving their active loved ones money they are helping them.
However, this more often than not has the opposite of the desired effect. If I ‘bail’ them out of having to face their own consequences from using, then in effect I am condoning their use and aiding and abetting their addiction to keep going.
This co-dependency can run for years; they manipulate us – we enable them.
Not healthy for either party.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Seizure At Dinnertime
Have you ever been walking along with a friend and for no apparent reason, your friend falls? Did you just burst out laughing, unable for a couple of seconds to even ask them if they were o.k.? This is often referred to as 'shock' humor. Sometimes when something is shocking we use humor as a coping mechanism. For many of us this is an automatic response and can be embarrassing.
It had been a long day at the detox and I had been asked to stay on a little later to help get supper out to the patients. The food at the detox was actually quite good. We had a cook that would come in and Monday through Friday. Then on the weekends we counselors would heat up and serve meals that the cook had prepared in advance for the weekend.
The patients would pick up a tray to put their food on then proceed to an open window of the kitchen to get the hot item being offered. Next, they would go to several tables that had other items such as salad, chips, and the assorted condiments.
Well on this particular night the line had been moving along quite nicely. Bob one of our frequent flyers at the detox had just placed his tray on one of the side tables to make himself a salad. As he placed tongs into the large salad bowl to help himself he suddenly went into a seizure.
The result was he went straight back and the salad tongs flew upward spewing salad everywhere. I remember diving towards him to prevent his head from hitting the floor and screaming for staff. As I was kneeling next to Bob with several other staff members, I glanced up and looked right at two other patients that had been behind Bob at the salad table. One of them turned to the other and said, “Boy, that really was a tossed salad Fred, huh?”
I wanted to burst out laughing but the gravity of the situation at that point in time would not allow me to do so. Shortly afterwards however I was able to laugh once we knew Bob was o.k.
There is a reason that the masks of comedy and tragedy are always shown together. They really are closer than most of us realize. A slight turn in one direction or another and either can be the result.
It had been a long day at the detox and I had been asked to stay on a little later to help get supper out to the patients. The food at the detox was actually quite good. We had a cook that would come in and Monday through Friday. Then on the weekends we counselors would heat up and serve meals that the cook had prepared in advance for the weekend.
The patients would pick up a tray to put their food on then proceed to an open window of the kitchen to get the hot item being offered. Next, they would go to several tables that had other items such as salad, chips, and the assorted condiments.
Well on this particular night the line had been moving along quite nicely. Bob one of our frequent flyers at the detox had just placed his tray on one of the side tables to make himself a salad. As he placed tongs into the large salad bowl to help himself he suddenly went into a seizure.
The result was he went straight back and the salad tongs flew upward spewing salad everywhere. I remember diving towards him to prevent his head from hitting the floor and screaming for staff. As I was kneeling next to Bob with several other staff members, I glanced up and looked right at two other patients that had been behind Bob at the salad table. One of them turned to the other and said, “Boy, that really was a tossed salad Fred, huh?”
I wanted to burst out laughing but the gravity of the situation at that point in time would not allow me to do so. Shortly afterwards however I was able to laugh once we knew Bob was o.k.
There is a reason that the masks of comedy and tragedy are always shown together. They really are closer than most of us realize. A slight turn in one direction or another and either can be the result.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Another Detox Opening, Why???
I know some of you may have read this title and thought to yourself, “Jeez, is this guy for real? Of course we need more detox beds!”
We here in Massachusetts have learned that our Department of Public Health plans to do just that; another detoxification unit with a floor staff of limited experience due to the fact that the money tends to go up into administrative roles rather than to those ‘working the floors.’ By improving the quality of the detoxification centers maybe we would find that we actually have enough – Better treatment, the higher the probability of continued recovery.
I can’t imagine the ‘evidenced based results’ being that great from the current structure of our detoxification centers in the way they are operated at the present time. Again, 'the longer a person is in treatment, the better the chance of their staying in recovery.'
People are lucky if they can get into a transitional program for thirty days post detox. So a detox stay of three to five days will insure recovery? I think not.
The fact of the matter is the insurance companies are now discussing ‘outpatient’ detoxification from opiates. Some have already started to do this. Most of our detoxifications at the present time (our state) are for heroin; either alone or in combination with other drugs.
‘Don’t talk about problems if you are not willing to discuss possible solutions.’
I am willing.
Instead of more detoxification centers, why are we not thinking in terms of sixty or ninety day programs? Again, the longer a person is in treatment, the better their chances of staying in recovery. Maybe community service could be tied in as a part of the program – we give to you, you give back to us. Or base the programs on the half-way house model.
The Department might say, “Well, we are not in the half-way house business.” Well, then justify to me why we are not changing the way detoxification centers operate.
These longer term programs could allow for patients first entering to have an ‘outpatient’ detoxification while starting the program.
The detoxes we currently have open could then be utilized for the more compromised or ‘risky’ patients; such as those on benzodiazepines or alcohol.
I believe there is a high probability that by having these longer term programs we would see a decrease in the need for “acute” detoxification beds for everyone as we presently have.
More detoxification beds?
How about we work together to improve the ones we have and establish longer term programs that will decrease the need for such in the first place.
We here in Massachusetts have learned that our Department of Public Health plans to do just that; another detoxification unit with a floor staff of limited experience due to the fact that the money tends to go up into administrative roles rather than to those ‘working the floors.’ By improving the quality of the detoxification centers maybe we would find that we actually have enough – Better treatment, the higher the probability of continued recovery.
I can’t imagine the ‘evidenced based results’ being that great from the current structure of our detoxification centers in the way they are operated at the present time. Again, 'the longer a person is in treatment, the better the chance of their staying in recovery.'
People are lucky if they can get into a transitional program for thirty days post detox. So a detox stay of three to five days will insure recovery? I think not.
The fact of the matter is the insurance companies are now discussing ‘outpatient’ detoxification from opiates. Some have already started to do this. Most of our detoxifications at the present time (our state) are for heroin; either alone or in combination with other drugs.
‘Don’t talk about problems if you are not willing to discuss possible solutions.’
I am willing.
Instead of more detoxification centers, why are we not thinking in terms of sixty or ninety day programs? Again, the longer a person is in treatment, the better their chances of staying in recovery. Maybe community service could be tied in as a part of the program – we give to you, you give back to us. Or base the programs on the half-way house model.
The Department might say, “Well, we are not in the half-way house business.” Well, then justify to me why we are not changing the way detoxification centers operate.
These longer term programs could allow for patients first entering to have an ‘outpatient’ detoxification while starting the program.
The detoxes we currently have open could then be utilized for the more compromised or ‘risky’ patients; such as those on benzodiazepines or alcohol.
I believe there is a high probability that by having these longer term programs we would see a decrease in the need for “acute” detoxification beds for everyone as we presently have.
More detoxification beds?
How about we work together to improve the ones we have and establish longer term programs that will decrease the need for such in the first place.
Too Far To Go
With his nineteen years on the earth, Nick was one of the younger patients. This was his second attempt at trying to get clean and sober. He had previously sought treatment less than a year before.
When asked on admission how long he had stayed sober for after his first admit he stated, “Oh, for about twenty minutes after I left.”
His drug of choice was heroin, and he was up to about a gram a day. Also in the mix was a history of depression with an anxiety disorder.
I began a group one afternoon where I was discussing the support programs available for people that are dual-diagnosed, meaning that they have chemical dependency as well as another mental health issue(s). As usual, Nick could be seen slumped in his chair barely listening, just waiting for the time to pass until dinner.
When I began to talk about a specific program for people to consider he sat upright in his chair, looked at me and said, “Willy, you know where I live? That program is about forty miles from my house, how do you expect me to get there when I don’t even have a car?”
I smiled at him, “Nick, gee I don’t know. How were you able to get a ride the other night to a town fifty miles away to score a bundle of heroin?”
“Touché,” he said.
“I didn’t mean it as a touché,” I told him. The point I am trying to make is what are you willing to do for your recovery? You know what you were willing to do to keep your addiction going, but what are you willing to do now to keep it in remission?”
He looked at me, let out a little sigh, and then went back to his previous slumped position in the chair.
Those of us on staff learned several months after his discharge that he had died of a heroin overdose.
We can teach and educate people on the tools of recovery, coping skills, relapse prevention; we can work with them on setting up a viable discharge plan, we can attempt to motivate them, but, in the end…the decision is theirs alone.
When asked on admission how long he had stayed sober for after his first admit he stated, “Oh, for about twenty minutes after I left.”
His drug of choice was heroin, and he was up to about a gram a day. Also in the mix was a history of depression with an anxiety disorder.
I began a group one afternoon where I was discussing the support programs available for people that are dual-diagnosed, meaning that they have chemical dependency as well as another mental health issue(s). As usual, Nick could be seen slumped in his chair barely listening, just waiting for the time to pass until dinner.
When I began to talk about a specific program for people to consider he sat upright in his chair, looked at me and said, “Willy, you know where I live? That program is about forty miles from my house, how do you expect me to get there when I don’t even have a car?”
I smiled at him, “Nick, gee I don’t know. How were you able to get a ride the other night to a town fifty miles away to score a bundle of heroin?”
“Touché,” he said.
“I didn’t mean it as a touché,” I told him. The point I am trying to make is what are you willing to do for your recovery? You know what you were willing to do to keep your addiction going, but what are you willing to do now to keep it in remission?”
He looked at me, let out a little sigh, and then went back to his previous slumped position in the chair.
Those of us on staff learned several months after his discharge that he had died of a heroin overdose.
We can teach and educate people on the tools of recovery, coping skills, relapse prevention; we can work with them on setting up a viable discharge plan, we can attempt to motivate them, but, in the end…the decision is theirs alone.
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