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Being educated in the nursing field can be viewed as an informed consumer when it comes to medications, theoretically lowering the chances of abusing medications.
However, in reality, access to potent, addictive medications (opiates, benzodiazepines, etc.) is easy and, therefore, the abuse of illicit drugs is also a hazard for professionals.
I first met Chris in my drug court group. Chris seemed very calm, clean-cut and knowledgeable. At one point, I had to remind him he was not the facilitator of the group.
Chris had a natural care for other human beings. Chris stated he had been clean for nine months. He was a nurse for 12 years, and well known in the healthcare community for his work in the trauma center.
He also was the team leader inspecting other facilities and training trauma teams. Chris continued to share parts of his story describing a car accident resulting in back surgery. Six months after his operation, Chris still had doctors prescribing opiates for him. Chris also stated it was no problem to divert medications meant for patients.
Chris was mandated to seek help through Nurses Helping Nurses, a peer support program for nurses suffering from addiction.
Chris continued to use resulting in the loss of his job, driver’s license and his house. Although Chris was the problem solver in a patient care setting, he had difficulty accepting the fact that he was an addict and needed medical help.
This role reversal is one of the reasons professionals in the health-care field can sometimes have trouble accepting they have substance abuse issues in the first place.
After one night of drug court, I was watching the news. This particular night the news was showing a live vehicle chase. Someone had beaten an elderly woman and stolen her purse and her car. I was thinking of another client for drug court.
When the vehicle wrecked, the sheriff’s deputies pulled the man from the vehicle – my jaw hit the ground – there was Chris. Chris, who I saw three hours earlier in my group – clean.
Five days later, I met with Chris at county lockup before being sent to prison. I asked Chris why he did it, his words were so simple – I’m an addict, that’s what I do, you know I used to be somebody.
Drug addiction, also called substance use disorder, is a disease that affects a person’s brain and behavior and leads to an inability to control the use of a legal or illegal drug or medicine. When you’re addicted, you may continue using the drug despite the harm it causes.
Drug addiction can start with experimental use of a recreational drug in social situations, and, for some people, drug use becomes more frequent.
For others, particularly with opioids, drug addiction begins when they take prescribed medicines or receive them from others who have prescriptions.
The risk of addiction and how fast you become addicted varies by drug. Some drugs, such as opioid painkillers, have a higher risk and cause addiction more quickly than others.
As time passes, you may need larger doses of the drug to get high. Soon, you may need the drug just to feel good. As your drug use increases, you may find that it’s increasingly difficult to go without the drug.
Attempts to stop drug use may cause intense cravings and make you feel physically ill. These are called withdrawal symptoms. When someone says, “I
saw it coming,” or “Why didn’t they get help.” What they’re saying is – they did not help.
Addiction is a treatable disease, it affects everyone. The responsibility is on everyone – if you saw it coming, you could have made a difference. I’d rather see our children graduate high school than drug court.
The Partnership to End Addiction has trained professionals available via phone (1-855-378-4373), text message (text 55753).
Dr. Herb Clark of Murphy is an expert in the field of addiction with 33 years of experience. He served on the N.C. Professional Practice board, adjunct professor for two universities and was a U.S. Marine serving 25 years, through two wars and three conflicts traveling the world, seeing the effects of addiction firsthand worldwide. Send questions or comments to him at hypno321@hotmail.com.