Free program to focus on why addicts struggle to quit

The Crawford-Marion ADAMH Board and the STAND Coalition (formerly the Marion County Opiate Task Force) have invited Dr. Brad Landers, clinical director of addiction psychiatry at Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center, to present a second community forum on addiction and treatment. The program is set for Tuesday, September 29, 2015 at Tri Rivers Career Center Auditorium from 6:30 to 8 pm.

A follow up to the spring program, Landers will focus on opiate addiction specifically, in part attempting to answer the question many ask – “Why can’t they just quit.”

Landers notes, “The addict’s perception of the world is dramatically altered. The change in them is obvious to others but not always to the addict.”

Part of the presentation will address the blood-brain barrier – which traditionally does a good job of screening out harmful toxins but does let alcohol, marijuana and opiates slip into the brain.  This sets the stage for continued use and – sometimes — eventual addiction.  Once the pattern is established Landers notes, “The brain is now convinced it needs drugs the same way it needs food, water and sex for survival.”

ADAMH Board director Jody Demo-Hodgins says, “The good news is that the human brain is malleable and with the right environment and the right kind of treatment – especially medication assisted treatment – people improve.”

She further states that that takes time. The road to recovery does not typically go in a straight line and that recovery looks different for each recovering person.

Demo-Hodgins reports that this is the forth community presentation the ADAMH Board has sponsored as a way to increase community understanding about the heroin epidemic, treatment and recovery.

Demo-Hodgins notes, “The current substance abuse culture in Marion has changed in ways that will shock those who never before considered the possibility that they or their loved ones would ever become addicts, much less heroin addicts.  Many people today do not understand, how a bottle of pills stored in a household medicine cabinet can be linked by a surprisingly short route to heroin that is purchased from street dealers.”

The program will take place on Tuesday, September 29th at the Tri Rivers Career Center Auditorium on the west side of Tri-Rivers. It will run from 6:30 to 8 pm and is free and open to the public.

For questions you can call the ADAMH Board at 740-387-8531.