Addiction Recovery Manual

By E. Allen Griggs M.D. J.D.

E. Allen Griggs, M.D., J.D. is a pathologist and attorney practicing in the forensic field. Having performed thousands of alcohol and drug-related autopsies, he grew weary of seeing young lives lost to alcohol and drugs. To help an addicted person you must understand addiction not as a moral failure, but as a medical disease. In this manual Dr. Griggs provides the model for understanding and aiding your addicted loved ones.

Using real world stories of patients to illustrate the harsh reality of addiction, Dr. Griggs provides a recovery plan and walks with you on the path out of the wilderness that is addiction.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jul 15, 2020
• ISBN: 9781098314132

Book preview

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Copyright ©2020, E. Allen Griggs, M.D. , J.D.

All Rights Reserved

Print ISBN: 978-1-09831-412-5

eBook ISBN: 978-1-09831-413-2

ADDICTION RECOVERY MANUAL

A Practical Path to Freedom from Alcohol and Drug Addiction

E. Allen Griggs, M.D., J.D.

As a pathologist and attorney practicing in the forensic field, performing thousands of alcohol and drug-related autopsies, I grew weary of seeing young lives lost to alcohol and drugs, and trained in addiction medicine to help addicted patients recover their lives, rather than lose them.

If you are concerned about addictive behavior—by your family, friends, co-workers, or yourself—then you must understand addiction and the effects it has on these people. In this manual, I provide the current medical model for addiction. It is not a moral failure, but a medical disease, like cancer, heart disease or diabetes, that responds to treatment. Addiction of all types is now understood as a genetic brain disorder.

Using this manual, you will understand the addictive drugs, how one becomes addicted to them, and suffers their consequences. Stories of typical patients illustrate the slippery slope they take down the hill into the thicket of drugs and lose their way. I provide a proven recovery plan and walk with you on the path out of the wilderness of addiction.

Disclaimer

The names of people in the story section of each chapter are fictitious, and do not represent real persons, living or dead. Any resemblance to real persons is coincidental. This manual is not offered as medical treatment or legal representation; rather it is a guide for the reader’s use in seeking his or her own medical treatment from a physician or legal advice from an attorney.

I am proud to practice with Bedford Transitions LLC in Indiana, helping addicts recover their lives.

Purpose of this Manual

This book is intended as a survival manual, a compass to guide you on the journey out of addiction. As your guide, I place this manual in your hands, so that you may find the life that you deserve, following the path of recovery. This book is not a definitive tome on the medical science of addiction, but rather it is the shared experiences of recovering patients, myself included. Keep this manual in your pocket during your recovery journey. Use it daily on your walk. Like the majestic monarch butterfly on the book cover, you can emerge, transformed. Tell me your story at [e-mail].

Dedication

To Kate, who knows, with love and affection, that everything happens for a reason.

Acknowledgements

For those who counseled, taught and guided me along the way, I am grateful to Daniel H. Angres, M.D., Kathy Bettinardi-Angres, APN, MS, RN, CADC, counselor Leslie Frondorf and the staff at Positive Sobriety Institute; to coordinators Anne Kelley and Candace Backer at the ISMA; to counselors Cindy Houston and Liz Fitzgerald; to Alexandra Griggs at anotherbrooklynartist.com for making the book cover come alive; to Deanna and Jerry Ford for the privilege of practicing addiction medicine with Transitions LLC; and to my patients, who teach and inspire me daily.

Table of Contents

What is Addiction?

What are the Addictives? Public Enemy Number One: Alcohol.

What are the Addictives? Mother’s Little Helpers: Opioids and Opiates

My Journey

The Way In: How You Became Addicted

How it Was: Consequences of Addiction:

Effects and Bad Results

Busted! The Legal Ramifications of Addiction

The Way Out: Recovery from Addiction in a Nutshell

The Turning Point - Where You Turn the Corner and Come out the other side

Treatment modalities: Treating the Mind: Mens Sana

Treatment modalities: Treating the Body:

Corpore Sana

How it Will Be: Benefits of Recovery

Relapse Prevention

The Friends Who Aren’t Your Friends:

a Special Chapter for These Losers

A Word for the Spouses and Kids

You’re Free, Now Enjoy the Life Well-Lived!

Chapter One

What is Addiction?

Addiction is where you can’t get enough of what you don’t want anymore.

Deepak Chopra, M.D.

The Demon Comes to Meet Aaron.

Aaron’s story is typical: a high school footballer injured on the fifty-yard line, he came home from the hospital with a bottle full of Lortabs—enough to choke a horse.

A pill relieved the knee pain, and also produced a relaxed, happy feeling. Another pill gave him a euphoric glow, a nice little high. His doctor renewed his prescriptions for a while after the pain was gone. Soon, he took the pills to relieve the ugly lows that inevitably followed the lovely highs.

When his doctor stopped prescribing, and he ran out of Lortabs, he bought other pain pills from his school buddies who used – Percs, Hydros, Oxys or Hillbilly Heroin. These produced similar highs.

When his money ran out, he found street Heroin—also known as Brown Sugar, China White or Horse—cheaper and easier to score. Aaron snorted the powder at first, then learned how to melt it down in a spoon and inject it for a greater rush. A belt helped as a tourniquet, but sometimes the veins in his arms became infected.

He dropped out of high school, forgot about college, did a few odd jobs. His grandfather got him on to train as a welder, but he couldn’t keep up with the schedule, and it was hot work. He kept falling asleep, and flunked a urine drug screen.

He now lives in the basement of his mother’s house, and does a little landscaping to keep her happy. His girlfriend has custody of their baby. While he was in prison for seven months on a methamphetamine possession charge, he learned that he had Hepatitis-C, but received no treatment. Heroin was harder to get in prison, but pain pills and a little Suboxone were available if you had the cash, or performed favors.

Now on probation, he attends court-ordered intensive outpatient therapy and presents to me at Transitions for Suboxone opioid withdrawal therapy. He’s also a smoker, drinks beer, and does some weed. He has a few tattoos he got in prison. His friends stop by and snort a little meth. Soon he will have to drop a weekly urine drug test for his probation officer.

Aaron arrives for his first medically assisted addiction withdrawal treatment.

He is one nervous dude, off all drugs for a week for fear of going back to prison. He is anxious, sweaty, and tremulous. He can’t sit still. He is yawning, with gooseflesh skin and a runny nose. He complains of vomiting and diarrhea, and is rubbing his joints and muscles due to diffuse aching. I note that his resting pulse is 102 beats per minute and his pupils are moderately dilated.

These signs and symptoms all add up to a Clinical Opiate Withdrawal Scale (COWS) of over 36—he is in severe withdrawal.

I admit Aaron to the Transitions program for Suboxone-assisted opiate withdrawal induction therapy, weekly visits and urine drug tests. I also prescribe Topiramate for cravings and Zoloft for anxiety and depression. He is scheduled for individual counseling and local Narcotics Anonymous (NA) meetings, also required. The therapist will employ cognitive behavioral therapy and behavior-modification strategies; and NA will introduce him to the twelve-step recovery program. He has joined our healing family, and we will see him through to sobriety.

With the triad of Suboxone, counseling, and NA, Aaron has a chance to pull his life free from the death grip of opioid addiction — first his body, then his mind, and finally his spirituality. He has a chance to restore his family and clean up his legal obligations. He has a chance to find and hold a decent job. He has a chance to see his baby again. His chances for