Addiction recovery can last a lifetime
“Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency for me,” says the poster over the reception desk at the Alliance methadone clinic in Whalley. On another wall is a poster that lists the 12 steps to recovery and one with the 12 traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous.
This is a private clinic where patients pay $60 a visit. The fee, which is waived for those on welfare, is on top of the medicare payment to the clinic’s doctors and covers the wages of the therapists and peer counsellors on staff.
The support staff reflects the fact that dealing with addictions effectively is more complicated than a routine consultation.
All is calm until a woman jumps the queue for the bathroom.
“I have a job to get to,” complained the man who was next in line. “She always does this. She always gets her way.”
A daughter follows her mother in the line for urine testing. There’s a guy in a wheelchair and a couple of young guys with coffee checking their phones.
And there’s Alan, 65, who’s been coming here for years to get his methadone prescription. He no longer uses alcohol, but tells Dr. Jennifer Melamed that he’s still smoking cocaine every Friday.
Beyond that, methadone has evened him out. He has a part-time job and he volunteers in the community.
People like Alan are the reason Melamed and others — including Evan Wood, the head of the B.C. Centre for Substance Use — have an expanded definition of abstinence that includes being on an opioid-replacement therapy.
Melamed, one of the clinic’s owners, has been practising addictions medicine for more than 15 years and was among the first in B.C. to prescribe Suboxone, which is now B.C.’s recommended firstline treatment for opioid addictions.
Because addiction is a chronic disease, there are some people who may be on methadone or Suboxone for life. But for others, it may only be what they need to set them on a path to recovery that includes abstaining from all drugs.
To underscore the point, Melamed introduces Susan.
Although she no longer takes any drugs, Susan checks in frequently with Melamed and her counsellor at the clinic and regularly attends abstinencebased recovery meetings.
It took years to get her off methadone. At one point, her dose was so low — one milligram compared with the starting average of 50 milligrams — that the pharmacist laughed at the prescription.
Still, it meant that every day, Susan went there and drank it down in juice because she said she was terrified of relapsing. It was only when she felt her support system was strong enough that she could let go of methadone completely.
With her family relationships re-established, with friends and other people to lean on for support, Susan has regained some of what addiction stole from her. But more importantly, she has a chance at a new life that includes going back to school.