Chapter Two
Methadone
This is part two of the story of a young man who all the potential to be a success in life but lost a lot due to his addiction. He went through many drug rehab centers before finding Narconon. Narconon drug rehab is where he ultimately found the best way for him to stay sober. No real names are used to protect the privacy of those mentioned.
When Tony tried the methadone, he immediately liked it better than any other drug he had ever done before. He started taking 30 to 40 milligrams of it per day. He would get it from his friend who had a prescription on a daily basis. He would also use cocaine on occasion, when it was available. Although he was using methadone so often he still managed to do ok in his classes. He got to a point where he had to use the methadone to be able to function as a semi-normal human being. He was so dependent on the drug that it got to the point where he was more able to function on the methadone than he was if he stopped.
While he was med school, Tony met a girl that he ended up really caring about. They started dating. Eventually they would become engaged. After a while, when she found out that he was using methadone, she told him that he had to quit using it, or she would not see him anymore. He was quite in love with her and was willing to do anything at the time to continue seeing her. He stopped using the methadone immediately.
He started to immediately go through horrible withdrawals. He had vomited like someone who had a horrible case of food poisoning and had diarrhea constantly. His body physically hurt. It was pure agony. He would lay in be at night and be in so much pain that he would punch himself as hard as he could. He felt like he wanted to rip his bones out of his skin. He felt so tortured at some moments that if he could have shot himself to put himself out of his own misery he would have. He said that the pain that he suffered from the withdrawal went on for months. He physically just did not feel well. His academics suffered tremendously because of this. His stomach irritation was to the point that he was not able to be away from his toilet for very long. He constantly felt nauseous or that he had to go to the bathroom. He had diarrhea for months.
Four months from graduating, Tony had to quit medical school. He just could not concentrate to the extent he needed to be able to finish it out. His then fiancé, did finish medical school however. She was offered a position as a resident at a major medical school hospital in Georgia. Tony and she then moved to Atlanta.
They got married and soon settled into domestic life in the urban sprawl of the Atlanta metropolis. Tony got a job a doctor’s office near by. The doctor was a crooked sort of guy and the office eventually got shut down.
After starting to work Tony began to crave opiates again. He got one of the doctors in the practice to give him a prescription for oxycontin. He started using them quite frequently, until the point where he developed and physical addiction to them. After a while his wife noticed that he was not acting as his normal self and soon discovered that he was addicted to the narcotics. She was very upset, but did not want to get a divorce. She told him that he had to go to a detox center. He agreed and went to one of the most degredated detox centers in the Atlanta area. Most of the patients in the center where on medications for bi-polar disorder or schizophrenia. Tony was not a psych patient; he was just addicted to drugs. After twenty four hours of being in the center he talked to psychiatrist that was in charge of the place and convinced her that it was not appropriate for him to be detoxing in that center. After a short conversation with Tony, she agreed. He was released and he called his wife to come get him. His wife was very angry that he had not finished his detoxification in the center but agreed to let him come home. He finished his detoxification at home and then went in search of a different job opportunity.
After a while he found employment at a local advertising agency. He got a very good position and soon was making a very good income. Things were really starting to look up for Tony in the way of his getting his life in order. Unfortunately, he was still having unbelievable cravings for opiates.
His job provided insurance and after a while Tony decided that he needed the aid of a pain management clinic. Due to his medical training he knew exactly the correct words to say to the attending physician to get the prescription that he was looking for. His story was so convincing that he was able to procure a ridiculous amount of prescriptions for opiates. He got a prescription for MS Contin, or morphine sulfate continuous, a prescription for oxycontin, and a prescription for Percocet for breakthrough pain.
He took all of these drugs in abundance, but told himself that it was ok because he was functioning. He was able to maintain his job and was doing very well at it. He was making over a hundred thousand dollars per year. His employers never suspected that they were providing the insurance that was paying for Tony’s drug addiction. His have his cake and eat it to situation was not going to last forever however.
In 2008 the national economy took a nosedive. In the company where Tony worked there were twenty one employees that made up the entire corporation. After the economy crash there were three left. Tony was not one of them. He was not fired, but layed off. Once he was out of work Tony began to become depressed.
Continued in Part Three….
