AREA FACILITIES HELP ADDICTS OVERCOME PROBLEM

As war in the Middle East seems to continue without end, so too the war on
drugs and alcohol is a continual challenge. Area clinics constantly fight
to help people overcome addiction by encouraging them to avoid the
temptation to do drugs and to stay out of jail.

For those who have found themselves lost in a world of drugs and an endless
cycle of use and recovery, two area clinics are doing their part to help
them overcome their dependency by serving as drug and alcohol
rehabilitation and detoxification clinics.

Woodridge Hospital and Magnolia Ridge, both of which are divisions of
Frontier Health, operate what are known as "detox clinics" that offer
addicts not only the medical help they need, but access to support groups
and counseling.

"As far as drug and alcohol rehabilitation, being an acute care facility,
we detoxify people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol," said Kim
Cudebec, clinical director for Woodridge Hospital. According to Cudebec,
the facility offers rehabilitation for addictions to alcohol and some pain
killers.

Those addicted to other substances find their help at Magnolia Ridge. "We
detox for everything except alcohol and benzodiazepenes (tranquilizers),
because those are the ones that pose the possibility of being
life-threatening as people come off them," said Deanna L. Irick, director
of Magnolia Ridge.

According to Cudebec, alcohol is the most dangerous drug to rehabilitate
from. "The withdrawal symptoms from alcohol can include seizures,
hallucinations, DTs and probably the scariest part is increased blood
pressure and pulse," he said.

Both facilities offer a variety of individual counseling to talk through
problems that surround a patient's addiction, such as depression and
anxiety. According to Cudebec, increased anxiety and depression can be
among the leading factors that lead people to substance abuse, which, in
turn, leads them to addiction.

"They need help with their depression, and they need help with their
anxiety, and they've been medicating it themselves for years," he said,
adding that, while at Woodridge, many patients are given appointments with
psychiatrists to determine if there are any underlying problems that may be
contributing to their use of drugs or alcohol.

Evaluation of a patient's medical condition is an important aspect of
helping them to stay on the road to recovery, Irick said. "That's what
alcohol and drugs are for some people -- self medication," she said. "When
things happen, they don't know how to react other than go use." Many times,
according to Irick, patients will have what are called "co-occurring
disorders," meaning that they suffer from the addiction as well as another
illness, such as depression.

Both facilities offer the opportunity for family counseling to help
families of patients not only understand that addiction is in fact an
illness, but also to see how the family dynamic can have an affect on the
patient. Many times, problems in the family can be linked to a person's
substance abuse, Irick said.

"A lot of times the two are so inter-connected that they cannot see where
the rest of the problems in the family are," she said.

Another important aspect to helping people overcome their dependence is
teaching them how to live again without substance use. "Our main focus is
habitation, coping and anger management," Irick said. "We're looking to
teach people how to cope without using."

An important factor in learning how to live without turning to drugs or
alcohol is finding out what factors in a person's life lead them to want to
use a substance. "We require that they make a triggers list and plan what
they would do in those situations," Irick said. Triggers can include
everything from lifestyle to stress to other habits.

Patients at Magnolia Ridge also learn about behavior modification in order
to change certain habits that they have identified as being linked to their
addiction.

However, even the best laid plans do not always work on the first try.
"They have in their mind what it's going to be like when they go home and
they're sober. Then reality kicks in, and it's not like that, and they're
disappointed," Irick said. "Because it is a disease, we don't expect that
everyone will make it their first time out."

Repeat visitors are not uncommon at either facility. "We have people who
have been here two or three times and then BAM! it's their time," said
Cudebec. "They leave here and stay clean forever."

Having patients return does not shake Cudebec's trust in the rehabilitation
program. "They know this is a safe place where they have gotten help
before," he said. "They know they can come back here and be taken care of
and get back on the road to health."

Irick shares his sentiment about returning patients. "They are starting to
return because they believe in us," she said. "They learned something the
last time and they believe we can help them again. We know it is a disease
and not something they can overcome overnight, and they know we understand
and that we care."

One employee at Magnolia Ridge offers hope to patients who come there, some
voluntarily and some under court orders, and he serves as a living example
that overcoming an addiction can be done.

Fryde Huneycutt, who serves as a counselor at Magnolia Ridge, is a
recovered alcoholic and drug addict who once abused substances for about 25
years and has since overcome his dependency. Huneycutt stated that he has
been drug and alcohol free for more than 10 years and 10 months now.

"I dabbled in a lot of things, but those were my two big drugs of choice,"
Huneycutt said.

Huneycutt's decision to quit came after he received his third conviction
for a charge of driving under the influence and his wife left him, taking
his two children with her. "My life was falling apart," he said. "I was
pretty much a broken man when I went into Woodridge."

For Huneycutt, the hardest step on the road to recovery came when he had to
learn a new lifestyle due to the fact that drugs and alcohol had been a
part of his old lifestyle for so long. "The hardest part is just learning a
new way to live, how to deal with problems without taking a drug or a
drink," he said. "Learning coping skills was also hard. With most drug
addicts and alcoholics, that's the way they cope. The world comes down on
them, so they just use."

Huneycutt attributes his success to "the grace of God and 12-Step programs
such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous."

Having personal experience with the topics he talks to patients about helps
the patients to relate to him, according to Huneycutt. "They seem to open
up a lot more to me because they feel I've been there and done that and
know what they're going through," he said. "Some of my experiences are
pretty bad, and they get new hope seeing that someone who was addicted for
25 years can get a new life in recovery."

Anyone who wants to take the first step on the road to recovery and enter a
drug or alcohol rehabilitation program is asked to call the Crisis Response
hotline at either 928-9062 or 1-877-928-9062 or Magnolia Ridge at 232-4130.