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Participating in drug panel keeps addict clean

First hand account of addiction a powerful component of presentations

"What Neil’s parents didn’t know is that their son had been vomiting, defecating and urinating blood. The doctor told them that depression was the least of Neil’s problems, their son’s drug addiction had escalated to the point were death was an inevitability."

 

When Neil took his first toke, he was a 15-year-old high school student just doing what everyone else was doing: smoking a little pot. Seven months later, he was experimenting with heroin, cocaine, prescription drugs and crystal meth. Within three years, he had developed a full-blown psychological and physical addiction. At one time, he was so desperate to get high that he downed 40 penicillin tablets to merely enact getting stoned.

Hard drugs were remarkably easy for the teenager to get in his hometown of Squamish.

"It wasn’t any harder than getting liquor," he says.

A few years ago his parents walked him into his doctor’s office in order to deal with what they thought was the effects of severe, untreated depression.

Their 25-year-old son weighed in at 86 lb, was extremely moody and miserable.

"I’m not a very big guy at best," says Neil, who currently packs 135 lbs on his 5’4" frame.

What Neil’s parents didn’t know is that their son had been vomiting, defecating and urinating blood. The doctor told them that depression was the least of Neil’s problems, their son’s drug addiction had escalated to the point where death was an inevitability.

"The doctor told me that everything was shutting down and I had about four months to live," remembers the heavy-duty mechanic.

Four months was the amount of time it took him to get clean in a Fraser Valley rehab centre. Today he is 28 years old and two-and-half years clean. Under the auspices of Sea to Sky Services Society, he is part of a panel that travels throughout the region talking to families about drugs. He will be joining Dr. Phil Shoemack, Sea to Sky’s Medical Health Officer, and Roger Lake of the Washington State Narcotics Investigators Association at two community panels in the Pemberton Valley: Tuesday, Oct. 17 at the Mount Currie Gymnasium and Wednesday, Oct. 18 at Signal Hill Elementary School.

Neil sees participating in the workshops as important to maintaining his sobriety as attending the 12-step Narcanon program and seeing his drug and alcohol counselor.

The issues he’s untangled with his counselor were problems that he acquired because of his addiction. He maintains there was no inciting incident that led to his addiction; no great pain he was trying to bury. Instead, he believes that he was born with an addictive personality that led him constantly in search of a new rush. It was that love of the rush that led him to explore increasingly dramatic highs. Eventually, getting high stopped being fun and started being necessary to just maintain his life.

"I was a very functional addict," he states.

Despite using everyday, he managed to keep most things going in his life. He was able to continue with school and get an apprenticeship as a heavy-duty mechanic. However, as he withdrew into a world where drugs became his priority, things started to slip away.

"I drove every single girlfriend I ever had away because I was an addict," he says. "I lost my friends. I lost my family and I almost lost my apprenticeship."

The reason he lost was that he repeatedly stole from his parents to support a habit that he estimates cost between $450 and $500 a day at the height of his using. Having been very good at math in school, Neil chose to finance his habit through sophisticated credit card scams, resorting only to petty crime, such as break and enters, for the "rush". His family threatened to press charges, though never did, and repeatedly tried to get their son into treatment before the emotional toll made them turn away. However, sobriety has brought the family back together.

"We get along better than we ever did," he says of their current relationship.

Despite the abuse he submitted his body to, the enduring physical effects he suffers are minimal. Some of this he subscribes to pure luck. Like a lot of heavy drug users, he indulged in a lot if risk behaviour, including unsafe sex and needle sharing. Unlike the majority of people he met in rehab, Neil does not have HIV. His liver, which was a mess at the time he entered treatment, has recovered and the only physical side effect of his drug abuse is some damage his teeth sustained due to the excessive grinding that accompanies speed and cocaine usage. The most significant damage has been to his memory.

Today Neil lives on his own and holds down a job as a heavy-duty mechanic and taking part in extreme sports such as motocross. The day we talk, he’s six days off cigarettes leaving him with a coffee habit that sounds substantial.

"You could say it’s heavy," he says, with a laugh.

The most evident legacy of his addiction is a case of arrested development. In many ways, he’s emotionally where he was when he started using drugs and alcohol.

"My friends are all married and have houses. I still blow my paycheque on things like electric guitars," he says. "I’m definitely playing catch up."