Nipping It in the (Poppy) Bud
Sometimes addicts will hit bottom and ask for help, but just as often they will retreat deeper into the carefully insulated world of their addiction. "We know how hard it is to actually reach the addict directly," says Quednau. "It's extremely difficult unless they want to be reached or want help." That's why Rt. 212 Coalition puts the emphasis mainly on prevention and education. Quednau has started visiting local schools to tell her story and participate on panels with other experts, feeding her community's need to understand and tackle the crisis.
Parents need to know what to look for and how to keep their children safe; one way is to increase awareness about the evolving ways in which drug use—both prescription drugs and recreational drugs—are a part of modern teen culture. In some communities, teens participate in "pharming" or "bowling" parties in which they gather and trade prescription pills gathered from their families' medicine cabinets. Discarding unused pills, or keeping them locked away, should become habitual. Curiosity, along with boredom and peer pressure, can lure kids down a path that's a lot more dangerous than they imagine. To counter it, parents need to talk with their kids, denormalize drug use, and give them escape routes, suggesting ways they can decline drugs without sounding uncool ("No thanks, I'm not into it" or "Not today"). And schools need to host assemblies featuring from-the-trenches tales that put another angle on the subject.
Quednau's story, with its soaring highs and crashing lows, is deeply cautionary but also hopeful. "People say, 'Once an addict, you're always an addict.' For me, I don't think so," she says. "I don't miss it, I don't want it. I'm over it. Recovery is possible. Once you start setting a foundation for yourself, and that foundation starts giving you a little more self-confidence and a better self-image and some responsibility, then you start gaining things that are too valuable to lose."
This is the second in a two-part series about the opioid epidemic. The first article appeared in the April issue.
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