The Treatment High

Frances Bula

| August 4, 2010

Image by: Nik West

What happens when recovered addicts go back to work, groceries, getting the car fixed, and boring conversations about the playoffs?

Frances Bula – writer of our August cover story on B.C.'s booming addiction treatment industry – asks: Are addicts simply swapping the narcotic rush for the ecstasy of treatment?

When I told one guy who works in the addiction field that I was writing a story about the treatment industry, he laughed and said, “Oh, it’s not an industry. It’s religion – and addiction specialists are the new voodoo doctors.”

I’m not quite that cynical. There is a lot of interesting science research being done on addiction and that research is filtering out to the treatment field. But I had to admit that he had a point about the religious feel to the programs.

As I visited different treatment centres for my BCBusiness story, each one was an incredibly intense experience that eerily reminded me of the Catholicism that permeated my Regina childhood. Every person I talked to was so desperately focused on not being a sinner any more, on staying on the path to salvation, on performing rituals that would protect him from harm. And every one was convinced that the treatment centre he was at now was the True Way.

Feature: Inside B.C.'s Booming Addiction Treatment Industry, by Frances Bula

That came through the most when I got to sit in on a group meeting at the Last Door, a treatment centre in New Westminster run by the unforgettable Dave Pavlus. (When I made some offhand comment to him about how any biker seemed to be able to open up a recovery house because the rules are so lax, he laughed, made a “whoa” gesture, and pushed back his sleeves to show me his heavily tattooed arms.)

It was like being at a prayer meeting, with guys randomly confessing their sins ("I used to treat my wife so bad"; "I used to think I was so cool because I was doing drugs just like my clients"; "I was an asshole") and then talking about how they had found the light. They were in touch with their fears, they were kinder to their parents, they were at peace with the world.

It was all genuine and completely true, I don’t have a doubt.

But it also felt like another kind of high, the high you get from religious experiences. And it made me wonder – I still do – what happens when these guys go back to their daily lives: work, groceries, getting the car fixed, cleaning up dog vomit, long, boring conversations about the weather or the playoffs or why Janey won’t do her homework.

Is it hard to live without the high of treatment? Is that why some slip back to drugs and drinking? Because it seems like what treatment does is trade one high for another: the exhilaration of raw, open group meetings, talking to other guys about your inner life in a way you never did before, feeling like you’ve found God.

As a reporter, it’s hard for me to see what will happen to all those guys I listened to who were so euphoric about their cure. All I get is a snapshot of a moment of their lives and some general numbers about how many stay on the path to righteousness. I left wishing for each of them that it all works out. But wondering about their future.

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Recovery after The Last Door

Submitted by john grouse on Mon, 2012-02-06 00:21.

I went to the Last Door Recovery Program and have remained clean since. I'm not religious, infact I'm atheist, yet I participate in a 12 step program which I enjoy. Treatment has shown me that there was a way out of my addiction and a path to getting my life together. I'm clean because life is better being clean, there is no mystery for me. I find it funny how people can't figure out why recovery works and abstience dosen't. Having no job and doing drugs is depressing to me, and so is just having no drugs and no job. Recovery has given me the ambition to get a job and be a productive member of society, to have and achieve goals, and to develope new relationships with people. In short, if people see and hear inspiring stories of success, they'll be inspiried to do the same. This is how 12 step programs work, yet to learn how to be free of addiction,its best not to be taking addictive drugs. i.e nicotine, methodone
If I were trying to get someone to stop hitting there dog, I wouldn't have them hit a dog shaped punching bag everytime they felt frustrated with the animal. Methodone keeps people in this pit of addiction, where it preoccupies their mind, where will they get more, how long they have to wait, and how the gov't seens to co-sign their addiction and drug dependence.

The reporter writing this

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 2010-08-12 07:56.

The reporter writing this article obviously has no idea about addicts and the depth of despair they fall into and obviously had a bad experience with their religious upbringing. When you’re at the bottom of the “back hole” ready to kill yourself because you can’t stand living in your body and can’t stand facing another day, and someone reaches out and gives you hope, that is a high in itself. Then by sitting around sharing your pain, makes you realize that there’s life out there that you’ve never experienced before and there is hope, you just need to believe, that’s a high in itself. What happens when these people get out of treatment and get “back to reality”? If they continue going to meetings continue sharing of themselves, the worst that could happen is they become functioning, happy citizens. Having a place of fellowship, friendship, a common ground and continued hope is what life is all about. Honestly, if we look at ourselves, deep down, how many of us can say we are totally functional. We all have some hidden issues, skeletons in our closets. These so called “treatment high” people are finding balance in their life, every one of us could benefit from if we were open to it. Bottom line: If it keeps them sober and off the drugs, off the streets, and the meetings gives them hope and help them become functioning citizens, what’s wrong with that? If more of us would try this route, sitting around the table sharing of ourselves and feeling good about helping others, this would be a more peaceful world. What’s wrong with that? Nothing.