​Help available for those battling heroin

How do friends and family help addicts?

In my column last week, I wrote about the passing of someone in the region due to heroin overdose. Less than a week later, I heard of another. I heard some reports that it was due to a bad batch of heroin. So I decided to seek answers from experts on how people can get help for those in need which is never easy. A lot of people are hoping the deaths don’t continue happening, but that can only change with awareness on how to get help. Over in Moorhead, Denise Peterson, executive director of Lost and Found Recovery Center and reGROUP: Peer Advocates for Addiction Recovery. Kerry Leno volunteer and special events coordinator for reGROUP, are doing unique work that is free where recovering addicts help the new ones. We asked them about the heroin problem in the region and what to do about it.

HPR: So just in my circle of friends, I have heard of two heroin overdoses in the last week. And I have heard there’s been even more over the last few weeks and months. Are you guys hearing much of the same thing? I know you can’t talk specific cases but does it seem like there’s been a lot more of them lately?

Kerry Leno: The word is going around that there has been more than usual.

Denise Peterson: We’re very sorry for your friend’s loss Chris. I suspect we are hearing about the same people.

HPR: Does that fall along with what you’re seeing about people seeking treatment?

KL: Since there has been this increase in the overdoses, we’ve had more people walk through the doors asking for services and family members asking what they can do for their family members.

DP: So we’re here at reGROUP and Lost and Found and our services at reGROUP are peer to peer meaning we are people in recovery helping people in recovery so we aren’t exactly the same as Prairie St. John’s or First Step, they do more of the in-patient/out-patient treatment. We’re pretty much peer based. Over at Lost and Found, our sister organization, we do counseling, one to one counseling but as Kerry said yes people are walking in more saying what can I do? And family members are calling wondering what they can do.

HPR: So I guess it does seem like it is becoming more of a bigger problem in our region right now?

KL: It’s always been a problem, it’s just more in the spotlight because of the recent coverage on the deaths. It’s a huge problem, it always has been. It’s just more in the media and it’s becoming more out in the public eye.HPR: Ok and I am just trying to understand what exactly a bad batch is, is somebody more likely to do from a bad batch or how does that work?

KL: I would say yes only because that’s what’s going around is that it’s a bad batch and now with all the people that have passed away because of it, I would say yup that would definitely raise the risk in death. Even though it’s always a risk whenever you use drugs and alcohol in excess, it’s always a risk of death. It’s just more prominent if it turns out to be the bad batch that we are all hearing about.

HPR: Is a bad batch something that is a higher potency of heroin or is it something that has poisonous material in it?

KL: The bottom line for us is that people can find recovery and that there is a solution to this problem and it’s just people becoming more aware that this is the number one health crisis, drugs and alcohol, and it’s not treated that way and it needs to start being treated that way.

HPR: There is somewhat of a stigma with addiction, people are shunned and it’s not treated like other diseases or like physical illnesses. How do you overcome that when people are sometimes ostracized because of the stigma of addiction?

KL: The stigma of addiction is definitely there. And the way that we try to overcome that is by people like me and other people in recovery, we’re out there, we’re talking about our recovery and we are productive citizens in the community. We’re not people sleeping under bridges. We’re Moms, we’re employees, we’re significant others, we’re people in the community and just because our past had drugs and alcohol in it doesn’t make us any less of a person within our community. But it is, there’s definitely a stigma out there and that’s why we are being vocal about our recovery because we don’t want people to feel ashamed or guilty because of their addiction because that is going to keep them sick and that could be the ultimate death of them if we don’t get them out of those shadows and stop trying to shame people and guilt people because that is not helping the situation at all.

HPR: I know the other hard aspect of it is somebody has to want to do this themselves is a big part of it. If people aren’t getting motivated by friends or acquaintances of theirs dying around them, what will motivate them? Also there’s the struggle that friends and family have of wanting to help addicted friends and family but having these people steal from them and it almost becomes like by helping you are enabling them because they are continuing the cycles of addiction. How do friends and family balance wanting to help vs. enabling them until they want to get help?

KL: If you were a family member that came in and said that exactly that to me, my suggestion would be that you as a family member, you need to help yourself in the situation and I would refer you to our counselor Beth because she is amazing with family members. Family members also need to receive help because it’s not just the person that’s struggling with alcohol or drugs, it is the entire family that needs to rebuild themselves. If you are a spouse of somebody that’s abusing drugs and alcohol or a parent, I’d say come in and seek help for yourself, because then you will be able to help your family member.

DP: We often say too that as a family member, you do need to have boundaries for yourself where there are things you can do that are loving and still have boundaries. Things that can be helpful, but there are boundaries. You are best talking to somebody who has been through it or talking to a counselor who can help you figure out appropriate boundaries for yourself or for your loved one who is struggling with the disease.

HPR: Is there a way to help somebody before they want to help themselves?

KL: There are interventions, at Lost and Found Ministries, we do offer interventions. And they are not the interventions you see on TV where you are cutting off all ties, it’s an intervention out of love so that is something that is offered here. I guess in my own personal recovery story, my husband, he always supported and always loved me and that was huge for me because when I first got into recovery, I absolutely did not get into recovery for myself, I got into recovery for my children and my husband. Now I am in recovery for myself but initially I did not have enough value for myself to do it for myself so I did it for my loved ones.

DP: Part of our endeavor through reGROUP by coming out and saying that very clearly I am in long term recovery and what that means to me is that I have a new life as a protective citizen in the community as she said. By dealing with the stigma, people don’t have to fall so deep, they don’t have to hit rock bottom. I mean rock bottom doesn’t have to be so hard. Goodness, people don’t have to lose their life savings, lose their families, lose everything, if they can feel like number one there is hope. Mostly that there is hope because without hope you just fall in the pit. But if you have a sense that oh she made it, he made it, there is hope for me and that will be just enough to say, I am gonna reach out and get some help, do what I need to do before they might hit such a deep rock bottom. 

That’s kind of what we want to do is to say it’s ok, we keep reaching out, we’re here, what we do at reGROUP is free, we’ve been there, we’ve done it, we don’t want to do it again, we’re in a new life now and you too can but yes it’s not easy. Not saying any of that is but we’re trying to make it so that the falling in the pit isn’t so deep, a relapse isn’t so bad. You just start over, just get back on track, when you have people to do that with and you are not just being ashamed and hiding it, you approach it differently and that’s one of our goals because we understand the pit, we understand relapse but you have to try to even those out a little bit.

HPR: So if somebody is at their wit’s end but doesn’t want their family member or friend to be the next overdose they hear about, how would you suggest they proceed?

KL: I would say just give us a call. Every situation is different so it’s hard to say how that person would proceed with knowing their history and their background. But if they just gave us a call, we could point them in the right direction, get them with the right people.

DP: What we offer, what we call services through reGROUP include meeting with a recovery coach in other words meeting with someone that has been there done that and knows how did they get through it. They might advise somebody how to get through it, also working on the recoveree’s goals. We also do telephone recovery support. If you are available by telephone, don’t want to meet in person, that supportive phone call can make all the difference so there are just a variety of ways to be involved. Again don’t isolate, don’t hide in your room. Stay involved with people, that’s what you need.

YOU SHOULD KNOW:

Lost and Found Recovery Center (formerly Lost and Found Ministry) and reGROUP

111 7th St. So.

Moorhead, MN 56560

218-287-2089