In the “The Hungry Heart”
By David Palmer
“The Hungry Heart” produced by Kingdom County Productions is a 90 minute documentary film about how one community, St Albans, VT, is dealing with the devastation of opioid pain pill abuse—hydrocodone, percocet and Oxicontin, for example–among teenagers and young adults.
St. Albans is a community of about 7,000 with limited resources, but it did have a kind and caring pediatrician, Dr. Fred Holmes, 72, whose small clinic, “Mousetrap Pediatrics” treated all kinds of childhood ailments from measles to nose bleeds and sprains. A couple of years ago, Dr. Holmes, reluctantly at first, turned to Suboxen, another drug, for part of a treatment that included his own participation and counseling.
Nothing else that he had tried had helped, and he reasoned that his addicted patients required medicine just like other diseases.
Suboxen, which is an addictive drug but a milder version of the pain pills, is prescribed for patients by physicians in small doses to help them function while detoxing. It is similar to methadone, an addictive drug used to get help addicts get over heroin.
The way it works is if you have a pain pill addiction you detox from that while taking Suboxen, which keeps you relatively stable and pain free during the detox process and in your recovery.
Five years ago I interviewed an attractive young woman, Jennifer, a mother of two, a sales executive and recently divorced for an article in my newspaper, One Day at a Time (which has been replaced by my website and Facebook). She wanted to tell me her story for publication in the hope that it would help others.
My meeting with Jennifer was my first contact with an opioid addict, in her case, Hydrocodone, and particularly one who was using Suboxone which had been approved for treatment by the FDA in 2002.
Jennifer had been taking a dozen or more Vicodin pills a day for five years, and finally, at the end of her rope, she had enrolled in a University of Arkansas for Medical Science (UAMS) program of recovery which uses Suboxone.
As part of the process, Jennifer had completed a 48-hour detoxing process to rid herself of the Vicodin. After that, she began taking Suboxone under the supervision of a physician. Within a period of several weeks she began cutting back on the Suboxone, until she was totally drug free.
UAMS also provided counseling services and encouraged attendance at 12 step meetings like Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous.
The goal of the UAMS Suboxone program was the total rehabilitation of the patient including withdrawal from all drugs– Suboxone included. The cost for the 28-day program was about $400.
Several local treatment centers in the Little Rock area—including Quapaw House in nearby Hot Springs, also adopted outpatient suboxone programs which was especially popular with young white-collar users who could continue to work while attending 12 Step meetings.
Quapaw House has this to say about its program:
“Suboxone is a medication that is similar to other opioid drugs but it produces no euphoria when used as prescribed. It works in the brain to prevent the drug craving and withdrawal symptoms that drive opioid addicts to relapse. Relief from craving and withdrawal occurs shortly after the first dose. Suboxone works best when paired with counseling, as life changes are required to achieve long-term recovery. Quapaw House pairs Suboxone with individual sessions and group counseling.”
In the Hungry Heart film, Suboxen had bought some time for most of the addicts, but by the end of the 90-minute documentary, one could argue that there wasn’t much to show for it. Some had managed to stay clean from the street drugs but were still on suboxen and still lacked the skills that they would need to find and keep a job. Several ended up in prison.
Lacking in Dr. Holmes approach was mention of the spiritual essence of recovery found in local 12 Step programs and in Christian churches which offer Christ-centered programs of recovery.
St. Albans, a town of about 7,000 people, is not without resources. It has a facility, the Howard Center, which treats substance abuse, and staff members comment in the film on the problem.
St. Albans also has daily AA meetings, and there are other 12-step programs available in the area. There are also 13 churches in St. Albans, but none appear to offer the popular Christ centered 12 Step program, Celebrate Recovery.
The late Joe McQuany, who dedicated most of his adult life to helping alcoholics get sober before his death seven years ago, was a recovering alcoholic himself, ran a men’s and a women’s treatment center, Serenity Park in Little Rock, for many years, and was an author of two books and a treatment curriculum on recovery. He was also an international speaker on the subject.
“I believe the happiest an individual is going to be,” Joe used to say, “is when he is in this pattern of living, relying on God and on other people. This is the design of life—to rely on others, as well as ourselves.
“I look at the battles that go on in life, and I look at the resentments and fears, guilt, and remorse, and how these things block us from God and shackle us to the self. Then I look at love, tolerance, patience, courage, and wisdom. These qualities have come from God and they are always within us. In our outer and inner conflicts, we can see the powers of self-contending with the powers of God.”
I don’t think God was ever mentioned in the Hungry Heart documentary. In my opinion, it is a serious omission. That said, I believe there is a case to be made for Suboxone to treat withdrawal. It can buy time in the struggle for the freedom of a transformed life.
One of the horrors of opioid addiction is the fact that long-term abuse can irreparably damage the brain. And the consequences are nightmarish.
Brain imaging studies at UAMS and other sources from drug-dependent individuals show physical changes in areas of the brain that are critical to judgment, decision-making, learning and memory, and behavior control. Scientists believe that these changes alter the way the brain works, and may help explain the compulsive and destructive behaviors of drug dependence.
The scary part is that though, logically, a person may come to know that opioids are not essential for life, as long as those parts of the brain in charge of survival behavior still believe opioids are necessary, they may override “higher reasoning.” Your brain, in effect, will not let you quit.
Dr. Holmes saw the mounting devastation of opioid abuse in the lives of the community’s children and others, and he stepped up and began to deal with it. At a public meeting, early in the game, he challenged the rest of the community to join the crusade. “Opioid addiction,” he told his audience, “is a nasty, nasty and unrelenting illness, and the community must come together to address it.”
Dr. Holmes has given his patients a shot at recovery, but if they do not do the work of following the biblically based 12 Steps of AA and other 12 Step programs, they will almost certainly fail.
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