Her boyfriend had recently undergone surgery, and had a prescription foropioid painkillers.
He offered her one as a way to take the edge off.
Within a few years, she was taking 100 per day.
JAMIE CHUNG
Whenever I felt bad, all I had to do was take a pill and then Id feel better.
And I always wanted to feel better.
By age 16, she was hacking into her dad’s bank account and skimming money.
Keenan Beckhart with her mother
She just took opioids and then drifted away.
Between 26 million and 36 million people abuse opioids worldwide.
In 2012, physicians issued 259 million opioid prescriptionsenough for every adult in the U.S. to have a bottle.
Lindsey Lee and her father, Wally
Around 2 million Americans misuse prescription opioid painkillers.
“They usually obtain pain pills from loved ones, sometimes by stealing.”
Everything seemed to make more sense.
I felt like this is what I needed to do anything in my life.
My whole world came down in six months, she says.
Her boyfriend called her parents and told them what was going on.
After an intervention, she got sober, but later relapsed.
She was seven months pregnant.
They feel energized and absolutely believe that opioids have just made their lives 100 times better.
White people are more likely to be prescribed and become addicted to opioid painkillers.
Nearly two-thirds of opioid misusers are white.
Isolation is one of the most common signs of problematic drug use, says Jacobs.
That doesnt leave much time for extracurricular activity.
Things that used to be important lose their appeal.
People seen as a hindrance to getting more drugs get cut off.
For Keenan, if her boyfriend hadnt made that call, shes not sure what would have happened.
In terms of friends, I was only hanging out with others who were using.
He was completely devastated, and that was hard to see, she says.
But that still wasnt enough for me to want to get sober.
He had doubts that she was truly addicted, so she kept using.
Then she overdosed, twice.
That was what it took, for her to accept that she was in trouble, she recalls.
I began to see friends dying from overdoses and I knew I could be next.
Her father, however, was still not ready or able to see the truth.
I thought she might be covering for one of her friends, he says.
But she passed the test, more than once.
She told him the results were wrong, but it just cemented his opinion that she couldnt be addicted.
I didnt want it to be true, he says.
That turned out to be the wake-up call that Wally never thought hed get.
I had to finally accept the fact that my child had a drug problem, he says.
Only one in 10 people with a substance use disorder receive any bang out of specialty treatment.
Essentially, they change the way your brain operates."
Theneurological changesthat cause dependence can be reversed in days or weeks after detoxing from the drug.
The first-generation of opioid replacement therapy was methadone, which has been used for decades to treat opioid addiction.
Combined with behavioral therapies, medication is highly effectivefor people suffering from opioid use disorder.
Moreover, withholding medications greatly increases the risk of relapse to illicit opioid use and overdose death.
Decades of research have shown that the benefits of MAT greatly outweigh the risks."
Because it means some people wont be getting what they need.
Comprehensive, patient-centered treatment with a long-term approach simply isnt available everywhere.
Even when it is, insurance may pay for only part of a program, or none at all.
AJuly CDC reportfound that the number of prescriptions dispensed has declined steadily since peaking in 2010.
“And that is driving our problem with drug overdoses and drug overdose deaths in the country.”
The CDC estimatesthat 46 people die from prescription painkillers daily.
In 2014,more than six in 10 drug overdose deathsinvolved some sort of opioid, including heroin.
Because street heroin was cheaper and easier to access, he shifted to that, and died of anoverdose.
That led, she says, to the premature death of a really good kid.
At some point, I woke up and saw what my life had become, Keenan says.
Its heartbreaking to think about what I put my family through, and what I put myself through.
It makes me never want to go back.
If youre struggling with a substance abuse problem, reach out for help at 1-800-662-HELP.
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