Highlights From The Podcast
Bob Howland Hits Rock Bottom and Recovers
Due to a severe back injury Bob Howland hit rock bottom and became heavily addicted to opiates. Bob discusses his struggles which ultimately led to his addiction. ย He also speaks of his rise back to the top and the challenges he now faces to maintain a sober lifestyle.
I would say to anybody out there that thereโs always a way back. A lot of times, we put ourselves in our pits so to speak and believe that nothingโs going to get better and that is absolutely not true. Thereโs professionals out there that know exactly what theyโre doing, how to get to the heart of the issues that could be going on with one individual or another and then pick you up and steer you back down the right road where youโre truly happy.
Finding a Treatment Center
I went online absolutely. I had been reading because when youโre baffled with addiction your start reading about addiction. ย I also started thinking about treatment centers. ย I was worried about the costs and getting the right help. Because I was in the medical field I decided to look for the best doctor I could find and I came across Dr. Mohammad. ย I found out hew was literally the best โฆ I mean this guy filled every category that I could see.
Withdrawal
I donโt think people understand what withdrawal is about or what it’s like. There is a reason that people will do just about anything not to go into withdrawal. You hear these crazy stories and the reason for that is the feeling and the mental part they are literally the worst. If you could imagine what it would be like to be shut in the box and the feelings that would come with that, thatโs the kind of panic you begin to feel as youโre going into withdrawal. Then if you can imagine the worst flu youโve ever had in your life and times it by 20 and you get all the symptoms with it too. ย So drug or alcohol detox is a major, major fear. ย I was looking for a doctor that could handle that.
Science and Evidence Based Treatment vs. Self Help Groups
AA is something that is actually excellent to do in recovery but when youโre looking at treatment, treatment is something that when youโre saying youโre treating the problem, youโre looking for underlying issues. Youโre looking at working on therapy to get to what those underlying issues are and treat it with science and evidence based behavioral change therapies.
I understand in AA itโs one addict helping another but when youโre looking at the disease of addiction, there is core to it. Thereโs things that it can do to your body and if you had pancreatic cancer, would you go to a pancreatic cancer survivor to be treated for the cancer? No.
You would go to a medical doctor so they got to do a full work up to see what youโve done to your body, to your brain, what may be off chemically. If thereโs things that are off chemically, I mean these are things that make the mind look to self-medicate because we all want to feel normal.
Then if weโre getting to that self-medicating thing, then we can get stuck there and not realize that that starts screwing up the whole balance even worse but itโs just kind of a loop. You just keep coming back to the same place. What they do at Inspire Malibu is they do a full psychological profile. They determine underlying disorders.
Co-occurring Disorders or Dual Diagnosis
In eight out of 10 cases, when you have the disease of addiction, there is an underlying disorder or co-occurring disorder. When we talk about underlying disorders, it could be anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, a post-traumatic stress incident. Thereโs many things. There can be attention deficit disorder. If somebody has one of those things going on, a lot of times they find a drug on their own to self-medicate their problem. ย So you have to look for those core issues because if you never treat the underlying issue, itโs basically never going to work because the personโs always going to find their way back to that coping mechanism.
When I say never, weโre talking thereโs a big chance itโs not going to work. Youโve got to work on those issues because when you look at the recidivism, itโs very high and if you can get to the root of the problem, it doesnโt mean youโre going to stop having the behavior but then what you need to do is learn to change that behavior so youโre burning new neural pathways, youโre thinking another way because youโve been stuck in this way of thinking for so long. Itโs what your body responds to and goes to.
The 12 Steps
I would try to stop using by myself and then I would get counseling and I would try to do these different things and they were talking about you need to go to meetings. They would keep saying you need to go to meetings, you need to go โฆ but I would go to these meetings and I would listen to inspirational stories, but to me, I couldnโt get how I was going to stop? ย I would wonder how did I get back here?
Now, later learning what Iโve learned, I understand 12 steps a lot better. ย Thereโs not a lot of people that explain these types of things but for me 12 steps are a great adjunct to treatment.
Behavioral Change Therapies
The biggest change for me is that I can see relapse coming now a million miles away and what I mean by that is these behavioral change therapies help you recognize and understand all the categories in which your brain is going to try to keep you to use.
Itโs the one disease you have that tries to convince you you donโt have it first of all.
Youโre always looking for a way out. Youโll go to a meeting. Youโll look at a guy that is just half in the bag or can barely talk and youโll go, โIโm not him. Iโm not one of him. I canโt really be an addict. Am I really like these guys?โ Well, thatโs your brain trying to convince you youโre not an addict. I mean thatโs what goes on.
We also have dysfunctional thinking. If youโre a pain medicine addict, thereโs absolutely no way you havenโt said in the past, โWell, what happens if I get put in the hospital and I really need pain medicine.โ ย Thatโs dysfunctional thinking. Itโs not something that your normal everyday person thinks. They donโt think of a time in the future that theyโre going to get to use. That means youโre focused on that drug.
Now, cognitive behavioral therapy helps you understand that youโre having those thoughts and how to change them through different coping strategies. Youโre changing your behavior through your thoughts by literally recognizing youโre doing it so you stop it in that infancy because if you stay in those mindsets, one day, youโre going to let it take you over. Youโre going to use it.
Uncomfortable emotions, dialectical behavior therapy, they use it on the troops coming back from Afghanistan and itโs like understanding youโre having an uncomfortable emotion. What to do in the uncomfortable emotion? Youโre seeing it. Youโre not going to use. Automatic thoughts of use, your brain is very powerful.
You can think of a time you used before. Put your brain in whatโs called euphoric recall. If youโre in euphoric recall, itโs kind of like youโre on fire. Youโre going to use if you stay in that. Now, just understanding that, I watch my brain try to do it all the time and I stop it. I stop it before it even gets started.
Your individual therapy really is looking at your core issues like underlying issues. They look back to your life, things that have gone on. Professionals can see things about you that you canโt see in yourself and then the group can see things in you that you canโt necessarily see in yourself and you can help others in that way as well but the thing is, is that they teach you these different areas.
motivational enhancement therapy is what motivates you to stay sober. They teach this literally in class. Youโre in class all day long learning. Again, this is for the willing. If youโre unwilling, nobodyโs going to listen.
Is Substance Abuse Treatment for Me?
If youโre not going to participate, youโre not going to take it in and the thing is thereโs plenty of people that come to treatment that donโt want to be there and actually come out the other side doing okay because they start to learn when youโre in treatment what itโs going to do to you, what itโs going to do to your body, whatโs going to happen and nobody ever wins. It ends in three places, recovery, death or jail. Iโd choose recovery and that is absolutely the way it is for anyone that has this disease.
In these classes, you learn these different therapies and putting them into action and getting yourself some good sober time, that combination is an incredible combination because what it does is your brain starts to burn new ways that it thinks and the more time you have, the better you feel and then you really want this life more.
You donโt ever want to be back to that same horrible place that you were because itโs awful and you donโt stay in those thoughts and cravings and you always know where it ends so youโre back to making sure that you can see it coming in any stretch at any time.
Then the other thing is as I said, six months is a huge barrier. Nine months is a huge barrier because the thing is, is once you get past these things, you begin to feel and think differently. Youโre starting to get to use those things you put into action and so your mind more readily goes there than it does to the bad place so it more readily realizes that, โOh, Iโm having an uncomfortable emotion. Oh, Iโm having a dysfunctional thought,โ and you know what to do now. You know which coping strategies to use.
These behavioral change therapies are incredible and do incredible things for people ย It seems to be the way of the future for me because thereโs a lot of people that have fallen into this addictive path that may not have been pre-disposed before where they take this heroine once or twice and their body is kind of hooked to it and then they donโt know how to change that behavior. They donโt know how to see that coming. Thereโs the line between the two.
Thereโs some that believe that alcoholism is there and the only way out of it is the spiritual path, okay? ย Iโve seen many people that fail over and over in that category but come in and learn the behavioral change therapies and theyโre finally off to the right place because then they can practice those things they want to do to get to a higher spiritual place because they can recognize when their thoughts are trying to kill them.
Starting the Process
Get online and start researching for places out there that will look for underlying issues in addiction, places that do a diagnosis because you want to cover every area. ย And absolutely look for a good medical addictionologist. Thatโs what you want. These guys know how to treat addiction medically and then move into the therapy stage but thatโs what you want. You want to find the best medical doctor you possibly can.
