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US: Knowles: Southland residents share stories of overcoming drug addiction - Daily Southtown

Found: Tue Apr 17 14:01:37 2018 PDT Source: Chicago Tribune (IL) Copyright: 2018 Chicago Tribune Company Contact: ctc-TribLetter@tribune.com Website: http://www.chicagotribune.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/82 Webpage: http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/dail... [translate] Newshawk: http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/

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Knowles: Southland residents share stories of overcoming drug addiction - Daily Southtown Knowles: Southland residents share stories of overcoming drug addiction - Daily Southtown

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Knowles: Southland residents share stories of overcoming drug addiction

Peter Bradley

Peter Bradley works as a corporate services clinician at the UnityPoint Health Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery site at UChicago Medicine Ingalls Memorial in Harvey.

Peter Bradley works as a corporate services clinician at the UnityPoint Health Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery site at UChicago Medicine Ingalls Memorial in Harvey. (Peter Bradley)

Francine KnowlesDaily Southtown

The devastation that opioid addiction is having on communities across the country has garnered many headlines. But other addictions, including alcohol, cocaine and methamphetamines also continue to destroy lives.

Amid those problems, there are untold stories of triumph. When Congress passed legislation last week boosting opioid addiction treatment, my thoughts turned to those who are in recovery from a variety of addictions in the south suburbs, and I hope their stories serve as inspiration for others to seek treatment.

Meet Yvette Cantrell. The 50-year-old Park Forest resident works as a senior addiction counselor at the South Suburban Council on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse in Hazel Crest. She holds master's and bachelor's degrees in social work and leads group and individual counseling sessions for individuals in addiction treatment. That wasn't always the case. For two decades, she battled addiction to alcohol and crack cocaine, Cantrell said.

Yvette Cantrell

Yvette Cantrell is a senior addiction counselor at the South Suburban Council on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse.

Yvette Cantrell is a senior addiction counselor at the South Suburban Council on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse. (Yvette Cantrell)

Because of her addiction, she "went from issuing public aid to receiving public aid," she said.

"My addiction caused me to no longer be employable,"Cantrell said. "I was an absent parent I was incarcerated."

After being arrested for drug possession in 2006, she got help through the Cook County Drug Court Treatment Program, an alternative sentencing program for non-violent offenders, she said. She also received counseling at the council.

She has been in recovery "10 years, nine months and 18 days to date," she said last week"It really helped save my life. I began to make 12 step meetings. I continued and never looked back."

Cantrell, who has 11 siblings, said she now has a good relationship with her family. But she said her relationship with her son remains damaged.

Her advice to others struggling with addiction is get help.

"You do not have to die getting high," she said. "For those in treatment, face your hurt. What I've come to find out is that at the root of addiction, there's often trauma, inadequacy, abandonment abuse. (People try) to medicate to try to wash that away. They get high because of the euphoria they feel. It's their attempt to escape."

At age 9, Cantrell dealt with abandonment issues that stemmed from the cancer death of her father.

"Face your hurt so that you can heal," she said. "Don't give upopen your mouth and ask for help."

Nicole Howard, who marks six years of recovery in June, said she was addicted to heroin and cocaine for 10 years.

Nicole Howard

Nicole Howard is a secretary at a drug treatment facility.

Nicole Howard is a secretary at a drug treatment facility. (Nicole Howard)

"I started using cocaine at 17 and alcohol before that," the 32-year-old Oak Lawn resident said. "It impacted my relationships with my family, my two daughters. I've been arrested, through the court system, in jail, homeless the whole nine yards. It took everything. I had several overdoses."

Howard went through court-ordered treatment programs, but ended up using again. She ultimately got clean when she voluntarily sought help, she said.

"I was just so broken, she said. "I had lost everything. I had no place to go. I was going to die. I'm not confused about it. I had had several overdoses."

Howard said she received treatment at Central DuPage Hospital and stayed in a recovery home for about three to four months.

"I was making a 12-step meeting every day for the first year," she said. "That was important for me because I was able to connect with others and build a foundation for staying clean. That first year I did a lot of work just on my recovery."

She said she had been in an abusive relationship.

"I had suffered some other traumas through my addiction," she said. "I needed to work through self-worth and self-esteem issues. I developed different coping mechanisms."

Howard now works as a secretary at a drug treatment center and attends college. Her goal is to become a drug counselor.

"If I could do this and get clean and have a life with my children and go to school and have an apartment, and car, have my life fall into place, I know anybody can," she said.

People mistakenly think addiction is a moral deficiency, she said.

It's hard for many to grasp that addiction "is a disease," said Dr. Kirk Moberg, executive medical director of the UnityPoint Health Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery, which has a site at UChicago Medicine Ingalls Memorial in Harvey. He noted that while environmental factors, mental illness and traumatic experiences early in life can predispose people to being vulnerable to addiction, 50 to 60 percent of addiction is due to genetics.

"Addiction is a brain disease just like diabetes is a pancreas disease," he said.

Those battling addiction shouldn't be looked at through the lens of a stigma and viewed as degenerates, bad or weak, he said.

That would be "like saying that someone who can't control their high blood pressure is weak," Moberg said. "It takes more than just saying no. Addiction is a chronic disease. It doesn't go away. It's something that stays with you for your entire life. But it can be managed."

Peter Bradley, a corporate services clinician at the institute, said it's critical that people take steps to get help. He did, and after battling addictions to alcohol, cocaine and heroin over a roughly 12 years, he was able to turn his life around. He reconciled with his family. He obtained associate's, bachelor's and master's degrees. He also became an ordained minister, he said.

Treatment works and there are many examples, said the 53-year-old Country Club Hills resident.

"There are millions of people who are recovering," he said. "Not everybody is dying. Many people are getting better."

But it takes hard, constant work, said Crete resident Peggy Gory, 56, who battled alcohol and later opioid addiction. She was clean and sober for 17 years but relapsed and now has been in recovery for about two years.

A key to recovery is for people "to be willing to constantly and honestly challenge and confront themselves, and change the delusions, illusions, and confusion that were held in the world of addiction," said Valerie Hammond, clinical coordinator with the council. "A recovering individual has to have the willingness to examine oneself even when it hurts and make the necessary adjustments and changes to win. . ."

For information on treatment programs, visit https://findtreatment.samhsa.gov/

Fknowles.writer@gmail.com

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prohibitionist	prohibition_agency	drugwar_propaganda	legalization	drug_reformer
reform_referenda	cannabis	stimulant	narcotic	hallucinogen

incarceration/prison mentioned? yes .

propaganda analysis

EXP - explicit prohibition propaganda (explicit_propaganda)	GRP - hated group (propaganda_theme1)	MAD - madness, violence, illness (propaganda_theme2)
SOC - survival of society (propaganda_theme3)	USE - gateway, use is abuse (propaganda_theme4)	KID - children (propaganda_theme5)
WAR - demonize, war, epidemic (propaganda_theme6)	TOT - total prohibition (propaganda_theme7)	DIS - dissent opposed (propaganda_theme8)

text of article used for CRITICAL ANALYSIS, under FAIR USE provisions of the Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. § 107, et al.

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analysis of article text

incarceration/prison mentioned? yes .

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