RECOVERY A LONG ROAD FOR THOSE IN DRUG 'GAME'

After sitting down with Const. Eldon Chillog, Lloydminster RCMP
General Investigative Services, and talking at length about the drug
'game' in the city the Booster sat down with Dr. Lisa Luciano, Thorpe
Recovery Centre, to talk about the effects and recovery of long term
drug use.

By the time people reach the stage where they are ready to stop using
drugs and get clean the 'game' has chewed them up and spit them out.

"When people call us it is usually because they have hit bottom," said
Dr. Lisa Luciano, Thorpe Recovery Centre clinical director. "The
people who come here aren't recreational users of the substance they
have had significant losses in their life due to alcohol, drugs or
gambling."

When a person comes into the Thorpe Recovery Centre Luciano said their
lives and bodies are falling apart.

"We have some people in the advanced stages of chemical dependency,"
said Luciano. "They're starting to have liver failure, seizures,
seizure disorders, mental illness as a result, anxiety, depression and
psychotic episodes."

At Slim Thorpe, individuals spend time in the early stages of rehab
trying to stabilize people who are in the psychotic episode phase.

"It's very messy and people come with a combination of those things,"
said Luciano.

But recovery doesn't happen all the time either. As a person's
commitment and maturity plays a big role in the level of dedication to
ending the cycle of addiction.

"A younger person fights the idea of having an addiction more," said
Luciano. "They're still looking for a way to continue using. Once they
start getting healthy they bargain with the solution we offer them.
Who wants to be a sober 25-year-old?"

The solution is staying sober, attending meetings, attending therapy,
staying in a supportive environment and working on
relationships.

"You don't come to treatment and everything is fixed," said Luciano.
"You get physically stable, you start practicing a few of the tools
you will need and then you go and try to face life. That's when the
hard work starts."

Relapse can and sometimes does occur as patients fall back into old
habit, and Luciano said it often takes four tries for people to
effectively get clean.

Stays at Slim Thorpe start with a seven-day period of cleansing the
body of chemicals.

"The first week is pretty awful," said Luciano. "The hardest part
isn't always the physical part. They don't really like themselves when
they come in here. The hardest part is the shame, the grief and the
hopelessness."

Though the program is currently six weeks long, Luciano said ideally
it would be longer as lengthier stays have been more effective in
other programs around the continent.

For Luciano, there are interesting comparisons to be made among those
in the treatment facility. People who are a few weeks along in their
treatment will relate to a fresh face in the program and help them
out.

"It's where the sparks of hope happen for our new people," said
Luciano. "I think it's why a treatment facility is such a necessary
thing. People in a detox situation are in such a bad emotional state.
Talking to me, the nurse or someone who seems like they have their act
together is really tough. Talking to someone who is a few weeks ahead
of them is sometimes the only thing they can do."

Post-acute withdrawal can take longer than the seven-day detox period;
marijuana for example, takes a really long time to leave the body.

"It can take months, marijuana is the worst, we find," said Luciano.
"If they're using crystal meth or amphetamines we want them to have at
least 30 days off of the drug. There can be differences in treatment
based on what people have done to themselves and how long they've been
doing it themselves."

Luciano said the chemical dependency associated with extended drug use
leads a shift in the brain that first needs to be worked out.

"Anything people do towards getting well is a positive thing," said
Luciano. "It is a relapsing disease. It is judged a lot of times and I
don't think people understand the shift that happens in the brain and
how long it takes for people to get well. It's tough to change."

There are both publicly funded and privately funded beds available in
the Slim Thorpe Recovery Centre.

The most common age range is 35 - 55, but there are many people from
all other ages who attempt to get clean at the facility.

"I don't like taking anyone under 21 unless family is heavily involved
because they are still adolescents," said Luciano.

The idea of addiction as a disease is a concept the staff at the
facility attempts to drive home after the detox period has occurred.

"For a lot of addicts they don't understand why they can't change,"
said Luciano. "They want to change, they are heartbroken they can't
change, they hate that they're hurting the people they love and they
hate that no matter what they try they keep failing."

But it starts to get better when they learn the why and what they have
to do to get well.