ADDICTION TREATMENT CALLED LIFE'S MOST DIFFICULT CHALLENGE

Ed. note: This is the fourth instalment of a five-part series tracing
a tale of drug addiction and rehabilitation in recognition of
National Drug Awareness Week (Nov. 18-24).

Addiction treatment goes on behind closed doors and becomes a cocoon
for addicts to become wrapped up in affirmations, 12 steps, and of
course, their demons.

"It's the most difficult thing you'll ever do," says Dale Gordon,
director of treatment for the territory's Alcohol and Drug Services
unit, and a recovering addict himself.

"There's probably as many ways to recover as there are addicts, he said.

"There's no one way to recover, but a good way to recover is
treatment." Recovery is a process by which first, one goes through a
physical detoxification where the body rids itself of the substance.

The harder part, Gordon said, is learning how to handle all the pain
that the user has typically masked with drug highs

"You have to want to stop, and you have to stop believing drugs are
the answer to your pain," he said. "My experience is that people who
recover have a way to do that."

This series is telling the story of a Yukon man struggling to beat
the demons of drug and alcohol addictions.

Kevin's way of detoxing was a little unorthodox, but the experience
is reminiscent of a Robert Service-esque poem.

"When I called the treatment centre in Whitehorse, they were full," he said.

"I can't put into words what that felt like. I was speechless. I was
really sick; I mean, I should have been in the hospital. I was ready
to turn myself over to them and they were full."

Kevin did not throw in the towel. He instead went to a friend's cabin
at Marsh Lake and isolated himself there while his body detoxed.

"It was 21 days before I could hold down water," he said. He went
through hell, he said.

He did his best to rid his body of drugs and alcohol, but had the
occasional beer or joint, he said. Then came his epiphany.

"I woke up one morning in Dawson and I had a loud thought. I thought,
'I'm not gonna live like this anymore.'

"That morning, it became very clear to me. It was to get out of
Dawson, go back to A.A. (Alcoholics Anonymous), and do exactly what
they tell me."

Kevin was in Whitehorse the very next day. He stayed at a men's
hostel, where he said he was not in very good shape.

He had gone through his own detox, but his body was suffering the
pains of years of drug and alcohol abuse. He stayed at a friend's
house and met with the treatment centre's director, who, he said,
began to change the way he saw himself.

"I said to him, 'I gotta get in here.' And I think, to this day, I
think that he saw something different in me," he said.

The director admitted Kevin and told him the treatment would be
different - more intense.

Kevin's eyes welled up with tears when telling this part of the
story. "You don't know what it is to feel like a nobody, good for
nothing, and to have somebody tell you you're worth it."

Kevin said from that point on, he knew he had to throw his hands up
and surrender himself to treatment. He describes his recovery as a
24-hour job, going to 15 meetings a week and surrounding himself with
people who were staying sober.

"I went to the noon and the 7 o'clock meetings every day, plus a
third on Saturdays. In between meetings, I was living
minute-to-minute, hour-to-hour, not knowing if I would make it to the next one.

"I went on a lot of walks during that time, to keep busy. I learned
through the 12-step program. I became as willing as only the dying can be."

The saying goes that there is nothing as dangerous as a man with
nothing left to lose. As Kevin said, his desperation turned into a
black-and-white, life-or-death way to understand his situation.

Success rates for those who are able to overcome their addictions are
hard to measure, because most services through which recovering
addicts participate are anonymous in nature, such as AA and Narcotics
Anonymous (NA), both of which run meetings in Whitehorse.

For those who do not beat their addictions, the story is rather grim.
The endings of these stories can rarely be seen, as they are hidden
from public view.

Indeed, most Canadian newspapers have a policy of not reporting on
suicides and drug-related deaths.

The Yukon's chief coroner, Sharon Hanley, said the number of
drug-induced deaths is surprisingly low.

Between 2001 and 2006, there were only four deaths linked directly to
an illegal drug overdose.

There are likely many more deaths related to drug use, she said, such
as disease from intravenous drug use and sickness from depleted
immune systems, but those numbers are harder to quantify.

The Yukon government wanted a clear picture on drug use in the territory.

Its statistics bureau took to doing random polling of people on the
streets of downtown Whitehorse who "were thought to be at
particularly high risk of experiencing harmful consequences of drug use."

While the results of that survey provide clues into the underworld of
drug use and addiction, it is by no means close to the full picture
of how many lives are ruined, or lost altogether, from drug use.

Tomorrow's fifth and final instalment of the Star's series will
reveal what it takes to beat an addiction to drugs and alcohol.