Here is one man's story of his family's struggle with addiction. We wanted to share his experience to make people aware that an addiction not only hurts the individual, but the entire family.
No one can ever quite remember when the unwanted guest arrived. The unexpected house guest, unannounced, no formal introduction.
After a while this unspoken guest was no longer a guest but a disguised, yet familiar face. They had arrived long before the unexpected announcement that dad had yet again lost his job. There were always a thousand and one excuses, and always someone else to blame but the real source of the problem remained, in the house, unspoken as we scrambled to keep life normal or as normal as we knew it. But normal in our house, was, as I learned years later, far from it. The verbal spars between mom and dad, escalated, the accusations for the reasons of the job loss grew but the trusty pill cabinet with the "off limits" door knob continued to dispense brief moments of relief for dad and mom.
In the 1960s pharmaceutical sales jobs offered enticing salaries to those who could "charm" the doctors and nurses of influence. The job also came with some other perks that were not quite so apparent at the beginning. The availability of the latest medication was yours for the taking, literally or exchanging for other meds with other reps. On the surface it could appear quite legit. As a sales rep you had samples to give to doctors and nurses in hopes that these would lead to their prescribing them in the future. But there was also another audience, the unintended audience: the pharmaceutical reps. By swapping samples amongst different reps experimentation was easy and very accessible. The term "controlled substance" was unheard of at that time. It was a new age of innocence. What better way of knowing how the drugs you're selling works than by trying them. Good salesmen doing their job. Addiction didn't seem to be a consideration, as that was only for the illegal stuff like pot and LSD. This was legal medication prescribed by doctors so it couldn't be harmful.
As more new drugs flooded the market the smorgasbord grew. Dad was an incredible salesman, the doctors and nurses loved him. He knew his products, and his good looks, and gracious personality made him a natural for the industry. He quickly climbed the ranks and became a top salesman for his company. His abilities were recognized and soon utilized for the major medical conventions around the country. Now in front of thousands and access to all the other manufacturers was a simple walk to the next booth. Samples flowed as easy as the cocktails. But the samples were flowing a little too freely and little by little began to consume the man who had the Midas touch for pharmaceuticals.
Getting your territory to number one required work and dad knew how to make it happen. Keeping the territory number one proved more problematic. Auto pilot only works for so long.
Then you either regain control or run out of fuel and eventually crash. What once had been simple samples of meds had now turned into daily needs. With drug enforcement agencies still an unheard of, there were ways of working around one's needs. Trading off samples with other reps still worked to a degree but controls were slowly being put in place to monitor samples. Enter the new approach: get to know pharmacists on a personal level, build up a friendship and a trust, a new means of supply.
The vials in the "off limits" cabinet were a marvel, a prized trophy chest for my dad. My brother and I knew what it was, and we knew, like the knob said it was, "off limits." Dad had a pill for everything and he was very knowledgeable. And he loved sharing his knowledge and friendly dispensing with friends. By the early seventies drug abuse had become a hot topic.
We were educated about it in school, we saw public service announcements about it on TV and it all began to click with me, with dreaded fear. I knew what my dad was doing and I lived in fear his "off limits" cabinet would have the cops knocking at our door one day. That never happened, and looking back it might have been a good thing if it had. Instead, that cabinet became the house guest that swelled with power and eventually brought a family and a house to ruin. And through it all to the very end it was never mentioned, that a problem existed in the house in the form of a cabinet that tore a family apart and would pit father against son over a simple pain pill. The ugly despicable face of addiction laughed, mocked and rejoiced in the complete consumption of what was once a thriving middle class family who on the outside looked like the perfect family. Behind closed doors and drawn shades the screaming, the crying, the longing for change never came it only got worse. The excuses grew but the culprit went unnamed.
Keeping the peace in my family would have proved a test for the United Nations. It was next to impossible. You learn to accept that living on edge is the daily norm. From as young as six there was literally not a week that didn't pass without fighting between my parents. At the time, being a kid, you fortunately or unfortunately can't see the entire picture or understand the chemistry behind the constant volatility. Instead you try to be the peacemaker, how can I keep them from fighting. You rack your brain trying to think of ways to stop the fighting.
If I could just find that one key I could turn it all around and we could have a happy family. Years go by and nothing changes, it only gets worse. You know it's not right, but you don't know what to do or who to talk to. It's the 70s who's ever heard of counseling much less intervention? Only crazy people go to treatment centers. You learn to cover up, make up, put up and just live with it. And you live in fear that the house of cards will completely give way and the world will see what a lie your family has been living. You live in fear, you live in shame. And you can't mention it to a soul.
For me, something about age six sticks in my mind as a new sense of awareness came over me. It was at that time that I knew things weren't quite right in my family but I couldn't put my finger on it. Being a pharmaceutical rep, Dad's job had him traveling throughout the Southeast. We often traveled with him during the summer months. What should have been fun family adventures became dreaded road trips. There is nothing quite like being trapped in a moving car while two adults sit in the front seat and wage a constant battle. Sitting in the backseat, I would begin to try and think of ways I could stop this chaos. Every time we'd load up the car we wouldn't be two miles down the road when the fight bell would ring and the next match was under way.
The constant fighting between my mom and dad never stopped, and somehow we grew to accept that that was just how things were going to be. As the fighting continued over the years each family member developed their own coping mechanism and escape plan. Dad's always revolved around the cabinet with the "off limits" nob on the door — the treasure trove of drugs that dad accumulated in his work as a pharmaceutical rep. The great escape was just behind the cabinet door.
As the years passed the cabinet filled with more drugs. The magic door practically fell off its hinges from use. Dad changed, his patience grew non-existent and our family was balancing on a very fragile thread. When dad was doing well, he could sell ice to the Eskimos but when the dark times came, an ever sense of panic fell over the household. And we knew dad's job performance was going to suffer and put everything at stake.
A new twist came into play that strengthened dad's prescription med consumption, an automobile accident. While working in Tampa one Friday, dad was part of a multi-car crash on the downtown interchange. He complained of back pain, found an attorney, won a lawsuit, had back surgery — that proved unsuccessful, and ultimately caused my dad's consumption of pain medicines to increase.
The ups and downs of dad's employment continued and the popping of pain pills seemed unquenchable. Dad's glory days of pharmaceutical sales were starting to fade, he'd leave for work around noon and be home by four. We knew this wasn't right and we knew his job wouldn't last. "How can you work just four hours a day and expect to keep your job," my mother would ask? And with that the screaming matches would ensue. After two years of just barely working, the charade was over and dad was out of work, for good. Dad's once dynamic pharmaceutical career was over, at age 50 he gave up. It all started to crumble and nothing seemed to shake him back to reality. Vehicles were repossessed, jewelry was hocked for quick cash, and then the house was taken away, but he always managed to find the pills. Through all of this — which was years, no one ever uttered a word about dad's problem. It remains undercover.
Now an adult and on my own, I learned of the process known as intervention. I went to counseling to find my own healing as an adult and to see if I could possibly help my family get back to some semblance of normalcy. Though it sounded good in theory it was met with shear fear by my mother and brother, they wouldn't touch it. Afraid of my father's violent response they continued to live with the problem and never said a word. After years of use, my father could tolerate incredible dosages of medication with, what seemed, little effect. Knowing enough to be dangerous not only to himself but to others, the over medicating persisted. And with it the consequences. My dad totaled three vehicles while high on medication and always managed to cover up his impaired state of mind and escape any kind of drug testing. Dad remained the consummate salesman and charmer — even with the police. Every accident was a little worse. The final one, he flipped the car twice and walked away from it. Completely strung out, he claimed the brakes failed and no more was said.
I have always marveled how through it all, the decades of abuse, loss and belittling, my mother stood up for my dad, never once admitting dad had a problem with drugs of any sort. An amazing bond and sense of protection my mother has carried for my dad — that I will never understand. He not only robbed himself of decades but my mother too. In many ways this has been the only normal she has known for 54 years of marriage.
I became the outsider once I left home for college and never returned. I would no longer play the game but challenge it. I was the bad guy. But in the end, I felt I was the only one who had had the strength to save myself from the clutches of a man's addiction that gripped everyone else in its way.
Addiction is a beast, it has no soul, it has no heart and the human destruction it leaves in its aftermath — tattered lives with little left to celebrate. If they only had a pill for that. The healing pill.
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Fairwinds Treatment Center helps individuals and their families get their lives back on track. We specialize in helping people overcome dangerous and deadly disorders such as anorexia, bulimia, alcoholism and drug addiction. Being a dually licensed psychiatric facility, Fairwinds physicians and therapists engage an integrated treatment plan, incorporating several treatment models combined with psychiatric methods to identify the root of the disorder in order for specialized treatment to begin and to ensure a lasting recovery.
If you or a loved one are struggling with an addiction, you can get through it and we are here to help you. Contact Fairwinds Treatment Center today to discuss your situation with one of our admissions counselors. Call 727-449-0300 or via web here.
This article by Jackie Glass of the Chicago Tribune shows the epidemic of prescription drug abuse is in full force.
Prescription drug abuse an American epidemic
Exerpt...
Women, we have a problem. According to a recent study by the Centers for Disease Control, American women are dying from drug overdoses and the misuse of drugs at an alarming rate. As a former judge who presided over a drug court, I have seen firsthand what addiction can do to people, from all of its physical and psychological effects to the collateral damage that it can inflict on someone's life.
Drug abuse often begins with legally prescribed pain medications for legitimate injuries, but so many of these drugs are habit-forming that it doesn't take long for someone to get hooked. Once that happens, it is almost impossible to stop. Although I saw a greater number of men come before my drug court, I saw plenty of women, a significant percentage of whom were hooked on prescription pain relievers. According to that CDC study, from 1999 through 2010, there was a greater percentage increase in drug related deaths among women than men, with the number of women dying because of opioid pain relievers increasing fivefold. And since 2007, more women have died from drug overdoses than from motor vehicle-related incidents.
As a judge, I saw time and time again just how easy it is for people to obtain prescription pain meds, and I was often extremely frustrated with certain members of the medical community. Many of the participants in my drug court sought treatment from the same physicians or clinics, and the lack of attention and responsible care that some doctors exhibited was a significant problem. The CDC reported that women may be more likely than men to engage in "doctor shopping," which involves actively seeking out prescriptions from multiple prescribers to feed an addiction.
Some drug court participants even got their teeth pulled, not because it was necessary but because tooth extractions often come with prescription pain meds. In one particular instance, my court marshall had to confiscate a prescription bottle from a female participant. Her prescription for liquid hydrocodone had been filled the day before, but just one day later, the bottle was already empty. As it turns out, she had gone to the emergency room to complain about vague aches and pains, and her doctor simply sent her home with a prescription. Sometimes, that's all it takes.
Across the country, several states have passed legislation aimed at closing down so-called "pill mills," those doctors offices and clinics that prescribe pain medication indiscriminately. The effects have been mixed. As the Orlando Sentinel reported back in April, Florida's crackdown has succeeded in hampering a significant portion of the pill mills in the state, even decreasing the number of deaths due to prescription drugs. However, many addicts simply turn to neighboring states with laxer pill mill laws, or they just start abusing illegal drugs and the vicious cycle continues.
Read full article...
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If you or a loved one are struggling with an addiction, call Fairwinds Treatment Center at 727-449-0300 to discuss your situation with one of our Admissions Counselors. For 23 years, families have trusted Fairwinds Treatment Center to help their loves ones through our highly effective treatment programs for eating disorders and drug rehab. As one of only a few dually licensed psychiatric and substance abuse centers in the nation to earn accreditation by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), we are here to provide the quality care your family needs to achieve a lasting recovery.
Authors Barry Meier and Bill Marsh A very insightful article about the growth of opioid use (legal and illegal) over the past 10 years and the related costs associated was published by the New York Times last week.
"Profiting from Pain" covers the increase of opioid prescriptions to treat long-term pain, while the supporting data in "The Soaring Cost of the Opioid Economy" presents the economy this opioid epidemic has created.
Excerpt...
THE use of narcotic painkillers, or opioids, has boomed over the past decade as drug makers and doctors have promoted them for a new use: treating long-term pain from back injuries, headaches, arthritis and conditions like fibromyalgia. Insurers have also grown to see pills as a cheaper way to treat chronic pain than other methods.
Multimedia
The Soaring Cost of the Opioid Economy
Some patients are greatly helped by opioids, a large family of medications. Among the more widely used opioids are oxycodone, which is found in Percocet and OxyContin, and hydrocodone, which is used in Vicodin. Other potent opioids include fentanyl and methadone. Narcotic painkillers are now the most widely prescribed class of medications in the United States, and prescriptions for the strongest opioids, including OxyContin, have increased nearly fourfold over the past decade.
There is increasing evidence, however, that such drugs, along with being widely abused, are often ineffective in treating long-term pain and can have serious consequences, particularly when used in high doses. Along with the risk of addiction, side effects can include psychological dependence, reduced drive, extreme lethargy and sleep apnea.
The economic costs associated with the painkiller boom have also proved enormous, giving rise to a host of unanticipated medical, legal and social costs. Over the past decade, the legal — and illegal — use of these drugs has given birth to new businesses and expanded existing ones. These include urine-screening tests to make sure patients are taking the drugs properly, added sales of addiction treatment drugs, growing emergency-room expenses, law-enforcement budgets and skyrocketing costs for insurers.
In the short run, treating a patient with an opioid like OxyContin, which costs about $6,000 a year, is less expensive than putting a patient through a pain-treatment program that emphasizes physical therapy and behavior modification. But over time, such programs, which run from $15,000 to $25,000, might yield far lower costs.
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If you or a loved one are struggling with a prescription drug addiction or substance abuse problem, contact the admissions team at Fairwinds to discuss your situation. Call 727-449-0300 or submit the contact form here. For 23 years, families have trusted Fairwinds Treatment Center to help their loves ones through our highly effective treatment programs for eating disorders and drug rehab.
With April being Alcohol Awareness Month, we wanted to post some helpful information to those who may be struggling with an alcohol or substance abuse problem themselves or have a loved one they feel has developed an addiction to alcohol.
Alcohol-related problems — which result from drinking too much, too fast, or too often — are among the most significant public health issues in the United States.
- An estimated 18 million Americans have an alcohol use disorder.
- One in four children grows up in a home with an adult who has a problem with alcohol, and
- Only one in four people with alcoholism ever receives treatment, which increases the likelihood of long-term recovery.
Most people have a general sense of the negative impact of high-risk drinking, but may not realize how widespread and extensive the consequences are. Each year, nearly 80,000 people die from alcohol-related causes, making it the third leading preventable cause of death in the United States. Alcohol problems cost the U.S. $225 billion each year, primarily from lost productivity, but also from health care and property damage costs. These issues affect every American, regardless of whether they drink or not.(NIAA.GOV)
Below we will cover several key identifiers to tell whether someone has a substance abuse problem.
Alcohol and Substance abuse is something nobody likes to talk about. But with millions of Americans wrestling with some form of addiction, there is a need to understand it. After all, substance abuse affects more than just the person addicted. It affects everyone associated with them.
Do You Have a Substance Abuse Problem?
There are ways to tell when your dependence on alcohol or another substance is out of control. If you or a loved one has any of these classic symptoms, it’s time to see a doctor or addiction counselor.
A Sense of Dependency
Substance abusers often say they need a “pick-me-up” or something to take the edge off. This is another way of saying they’ve become
dependent.
Once you become dependent, you feel you can’t get by without a drug or alcohol. You may:
• Use it in the morning to get yourself going
• Use it at night to fall asleep
• Need it throughout the day to steady your nerves
• Rely on it to enhance your mood
Inability to Quit
You’d like to stop but just can’t seem to do it. You swear to yourself this is the last time, but then it never is. Your efforts to quit always end in failure. This is the case even when your substance abuse makes you unhappy or gets you into trouble.
More than likely, a chemical addiction is to blame. Stop beating yourself up and get some help.
Feelings of Guilt or Shame
Substance abusers are often embarrassed by their behavior. You may feel guilty and try to conceal it. You also might:
• Lie to others about your drinking or drug use
• Become angry when someone brings it up
• Steal away to use drugs or alcohol in secret
Risky Behavior
Substance abuse is risky by itself. But it sometimes leads people to do things they otherwise wouldn’t. For instance, you may find yourself:
• Spending more than you can afford on drugs or alcohol
• Consuming them in greater amounts
• Driving while intoxicated
• Stealing to support your habit
• Committing other kinds of crime
Inablity to Function
Substance abuse hinders success in other ways, too. A person suffering from addiction often:
• Gets into trouble at work
• Falls behind in school
• Has scrapes with the law
• Has more money problems
• Alienates friends and loved ones
• Has marital or relationship problems
• Abandons other interests and activities
In short, it becomes hard to function on a daily basis. As a result, you may feel your life is spinning out of control. Asking For help It’s important to understand that addiction is a
physical illness, not a character flaw. It interferes with the brain’s chemistry, which affects your mood and behavior. Addicts who don’t seek help are not likely to get better without it.
Help is readily available, but you have to be proactive. To start, you have to let someone know you need help. Don’t be ashamed to speak up, either for yourself or a loved one. If you think a problem is developing, tell your doctor right away. It may seem like a hard step right now. But in the long run, you’ll be glad you took it.
Fairwinds Treatment Center is a dual-diagnosis facility helping families recover from addictions and move on with healthy meanningful lives. If you feel you or a loved one may have an alcohol or substance abuse problem. Contact Fairwinds to discuss your situation with one of our admissions counselors. Call 727-449-0300 or through our website here. We are here to help.
National Alcohol Screening Day will be held April 11, 2013
Screening for Mental Health offers alcohol screening programs for the military, colleges and universities, community-based organizations and businesses.
Held annually on Thursday of the first full week of April, National Alcohol Screening Day is an outreach, education, and screening program that raises awareness about alcohol misuse and refers individuals with alcohol problems for further treatment. Thousands of colleges, community-based organizations, and military installations provide the program to the public each year.
Main features of the online alcohol screening program
- Anonymous, online screenings.
- Utilization reports: Organizations who participate in the online screening can run utilization reports at any time to see how many people are taking the online screening.
- Demographic Information: Utilization reports include detailed demographic information and data about how participants are scoring (while ensuring anonymity).
- Community Downloadable Kit: All participating organizations receive access to the Downloadable Kit, allowing them to download and print dozens of educational handouts, clinician guides, promotional templates and posters.
- Promotional Support: SMH’s marketing staff is at your service to provide advice and templates to help you promote your online screening. All participants also receive the Online Screening Promotional Guide.
Programs include:
Military Mental Health
Military Pathways® (formerly the Mental Health Self-Assessment Program MHSAP) is a voluntary, anonymous mental health and alcohol education screening program offered to military personnel and their families in all branches, including the National Guard and Reserve.
The primary goals of the program are to educate, raise awareness, offer screenings, and host events about mental health.
Military Pathways program materials are provided FREE to installations, units and groups. Funding is provided by the Department of Defense, with support from the Center for Telehealth & Technology (T2health.org).
Community Mental Health
CommunityResponse is a comprehensive mental health educational and screening program designed for organizations, including hospitals, community centers, social service agencies, government organizations, and older adult facilities.
CommunityResponse offers community-based organizations opportunities to offer year-round mental health screening for depression and related mood disorders, alcohol misuse and eating disorders. The flagship program of CommunityResponse is theNational Depression Screening Day program.
College Student Mental Health
CollegeResponse® promotes the prevention, early detection and treatment of prevalent, often under-diagnosed and treatable mental health disorders and alcohol problems through in-person and online screening. For more than a decade, the program has offered affordable and practical risk management tools and information that educate, assess, and connect students with appropriate resources.
Your campus health and counseling center has limited capacity. So how do you focus your resources on the students most at risk?
CollegeResponse Gives Your Students:
- The opportunity to self-screen for depression, bipolar disorder, PTSD, generalized anxiety disorder, eating disorders, and alcohol use disorders
- Access to unlimited, anonymous online screenings and/or confidential screenings at in-person events
- Help-seeking tools
- Immediate results and referrals to your on-campus counseling and health center following completion of screening questionnaire
CollegeResponse offers kits to host in-person events for National Depression Screening Day® (NDSD), National Eating Disorders Screening Program (NEDSP) and National Alcohol Screening Day (NASD). Also, year-round online screening, with customized URL and home page featuring college colors, logo and photo of campus.
Youth Mental Health
Suicide is the third-leading cause of death for 11 to 18-year-olds in the United States (CDC). Prevalence rates of youth who self-injure range from 15-20%.
Fortunately, the emotional crises that so often precede suicide and self-injury are both recognizable and treatable, and good prevention programs can teach youth how to recognize the symptoms of depression, in themselves or a friend, before it’s too late.
The youth prevention programs provide practical risk management tools and information to assess, prevent and respond to signs of suicide and non-suicidal self-injury.
Workplace Mental Health
WorkplaceResponse is a mental health education and screening program available to businesses and their employees. The program can be easily integrated into existing employee assistance programs or enhance already existing wellness initiatives. The goal of WorkplaceResponse is to raise awareness about common mental health issues and provide easy access to screenings and referral information for treatment.
The mental health screenings are anonymous and confidential, yet provide very specific referral information should individuals need further evaluation and treatment. The program offers screenings for common mental health concerns including depression, bipolar disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, PTSD, eating disorders and alcohol problems.
For more information on National Alcohol Screening Day or to take an online screening, visit http://www.howdoyouscore.org/
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Fairwinds Treatment Center is a dual diagnosis treatment facility specializing in substance abuse, alcohol and eating disorders. If you or someone you know is struggling with an addiction to alcohol or maybe a combination of several disorders, contact Fairwinds to discuss your situation. Our counselors will help you find the treatment to fit your needs. Call 727-449-0300 or contact through our website here.
If you’re living with a mental illness it is very important to keep yourself in good health to help yourself cope with the illness.
There are some simple things to do on a day-to-day basis to make sure you’re taking care of yourself.
Learn how to manage stress by slowing down and handling one chore at a time. You can make a list to help keep your priorities straight and not get overwhelmed by tasks. If you do get overwhelmed let your family and friends know that you can’t handle so much responsibility. You can also use stress reduction techniques to keep your stress levels low. You can try getting involved in a hobby that you enjoy, practicing yoga, meditating, reading a book, or taking a walk.
Also eating a healthy diet full of vegetables, fruit, whole grains and lean protein can help keep stress levels down by providing your body with proper nutrients. If you find yourself abusing drugs and/or alcohol to deal with the mental illness, please seek help. There are many treatment options available and there is help for an addiction.
The website mentalhealthamerica.net is full of information for people who live with a mental illness.
Fairwinds Treatment Center is a dual-diagnosis facility specializing in the treatment of drug additction and eating disorders. The treatment programs at Fairwinds are most effective due to the dual-diagnosis approach, meaning we identify and focus on the mental health issues an individual may be struggling with that attributes to their addiction or eating disorder. This approach helps to ensure a lasting recovery.
For more information on how Fairwinds Treatment Center can help you or a loved one, please call 727-449-0300 or through our website here.
RESOURCE:
http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net
The Holiday's are upon us. This can be a very stressful time of year for those struggling with an eating disorder and/or a substance abuse illness. People tend to start to put things off until after the Holidays, but treatment to eliminate an eating disorder, addiction or both should not be one of them.
In some cases it may be beneficial to be in a treatment facility during this time of year in order to bypass the family and social events that tend to produce damaging results for those with an ED or CD, while instead using this time to work towards recovery.
Fairwinds Treatment Center treats our patients like family. We are fully aware they have made an important decision to save their own life, and we take that very seriously and make sure our patientsare as comfortable as possible
Should you or a loved one be struggling with an eating disorder such as anorexia or blulimia, or perhaps drugs and alcohol are involved as well, please consider Fairwinds Treatment Center.
Patients at Fairwinds Treatment Center will:
- Meet with a psychiatrist EVERYDAY to help them address and overcome the issues at the source of their illness.
- Receive top level care from our full-time medical staff which includes highly trained nurses and seven specialized therapists.
- Attend and participate in a wide variety of therapeutic activities including, art therapy, family therapy, group therapy and fitness/wellness groups.
- Complete treatment with a fresh outlook on life, ready for a lasting recovery.
Fairwinds Treatment Center was founded in 1989 and is one of only a few dually licensed eating disorder and substance abuse treatment facility in the United States. We specialize in the treatment and recovery of both adolescent and adult eating disorders, male and female.
If you would like to discuss our treatment plan and how it works, please contact our admissions department at 727-449-0030 or email fairwinds@fairwindstreatment.com.
Happy Holidays,
The following article was posted on the Huffington Post this morning Craig and Marc Kielburger, co-founders of Free the Children. This article outlines the struggles of a young girl who lost her battle with bulimia and drug addiction and how her family noy honors her life by helping others who struggle with the similar illnesses.
Imagine watching a loved one slowly wither and having no idea what's wrong, or how to save them. Michale Cerswell was a beautiful teenager with a wicked sense of humour. Along with her sisters Leysa, Naomi, and Andrea, she grew up on her father Jim's dairy farm located in Simcoe County, north of Toronto, Ontario. Their mother, Kelly Hall-Holland, was a chartered accountant.
At 14, in 1996, the family began to notice that after meals Michale would frequently slip away to the bathroom. They could hear her throwing up.
Michale had fallen victim to one of Canada's most common mental illnesses -- an eating disorder. One in five Canadian high school girls and one boy for every 10 girls will develop an eating disorder. One in 10 of those who develop anorexia die. Yet without a source of information or support for eating disorders in Simcoe County, the Cerswell family was lost.
"It seemed so foreign, it was so easy to be in denial," Leysa recalls.
Because Michale was able to hide many of the symptoms of her eating disorder, the family accepted Michale's reassurances. And for almost nine years, she struggled in near silence with her body issues, never seeking treatment.
Years of near-starvation exacted a toll on Michale's body. In 2005, she developed chronic pancreatitis -- one of many complications that can arise from eating disorders, along with kidney damage and heart problems. For the Cerswells, practically every moment of their lives from then on would revolve around supporting Michale in her fight to heal.
Jim put his career on hold to become his daughter's full-time caregiver. When she wasn't in the hospital, Michale lived with him on the family farm.
The greatest challenge was finding treatment.
"I can count the number of available child psychiatrists who are trained to treat eating disorders on two hands," laments Dr. Leora Pinhas, a past President of the Eating Disorders Association of Canada and a Senior Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto.
Pinhas says there are only about 20 hospital treatment programs across Canada -- none in Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and P.E.I. There are approximately 20 hospital beds in all of Ontario.
As a further complication, Michale had become addicted to oxycontin, a powerful painkiller she was prescribed to manage the agony of the pancreatitis. Pinhas notes it's not uncommon for problems like drug addiction to walk arm-in-arm with eating disorders. Michale faced a catch-22 -- eating disorder programs wouldn't take patients with an addiction and addiction treatment programs were unequipped to handle eating disorders.
Click here to read the full article
Side note: Fairwinds Treatment Center is one of only a few treatment facilities in the United State fully equipped to treat patients with both eating disorders and additions.
If you or someone you know are struggling with an eating disorder it is crucial to get them into an appropriate care facility as soon as possible. The admissions team at Fairwinds can be reached at 727-449-0300 or admissions@fairwindstreatment.com
Craig and Marc Kielburger are founders of international charity and educational partner, Free The Children. Its youth empowerment event, We Day, is in eight cities across Canada this year, inspiring more than 100,000 attendees. For more information, visit www.weday.com
Follow Craig and Marc Kielburger on Twitter: www.twitter.com/craigkielburger
Fairwinds Treatment Center invites you to be a part of an exciting one day event on Saturday, September 22nd.
Our focus is going to be "Helping Families Identify Difficult Situations & Move Towards Solutions." If anyone in your family, a loved one, or friend is struggling from an eating disorder, addiction, or mental health issue, this event is your chance to get support. Our speakers include the President of Family First, Mark Merrill and the Founder of The Alliance for Eating Disorders Awareness, Johanna Kandel. Attendees will also have the opportunity to hear from our Clinical Director, registered Dietician and a therapist. We are very excited to be offering this full day of information to families. Please follow the link below to register for the event.
Agenda Below:
For more information or to register, click here.
Fairwinds Treatment Center helps individuals and their families get their lives back on track. We specialize in helping people overcome dangerous and deadly disorders such as anorexia, bulimia, alcoholism and drug addiction.
Being a dually licenced psychiatric facility, Fairwinds physicians and therapists engage an integrated treatment plan, incorporating several treatment models combined with psychiatric methods to identify the root of the disorder in order for specialized treatment to begin and to ensure a lasting recovery.
If you or a loved one are batting an eating disorder or substance abuse problem, take action now. Contact Fairwinds Treatment Center here, or call 727.449.0300
Fairwinds Treatment Center recently released two new public service announcements to be aired on select channels. The following is the substance abuse message aimed at creating awareness of how an addiction can affect the most innocent members of a family.
For over 20 years, families have trusted Fairwinds Treatment Center to help their loves ones through our highly effective treatment programs for eating disorders and drug/alcohol rehab. As one of only a few dually licensed psychiatric and substance abuse centers in the nation to earn accreditation by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), we are here to provide the quality care your family needs to achieve a lasting recovery.
If you have a family member or close friend who is battling an addiction, now is the time to help them take the first step towards recovery. Contact Fairwinds Treatment Center here, or call 727-449-0300.