On the road to recovery
Glace Bay man's journey from addiction to paying for stranger's treatment
SYDNEY — Jeremy Tanner was 16 when he first started using drugs and alcohol heavily.
He dropped out of school, started working at call centres and used "pretty much everything I could get my hands on."
Now 28, he has come full circle through active addiction to recovery and, with his friend Troy Currie, paying for another man to go through the same substance abuse treatment program they did: Together We Can in Vancouver.
But a year ago, Jeremy was hitting the lowest points of his substance use disorder, which elevated from weekend to daily use and his drug of choice grew from one to two: cocaine and crack cocaine.
The 12 years of stimulant abuse resulted in Jeremy losing everything and developing another mental illness besides addiction.
MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS
In 2017, Jeremy went to his doctor in Alberta because he was having episodes of extreme paranoia plus aural and visual hallucinations.
These happened even when he wasn't high and during these episodes, he believed people were trying to kill him, sometimes hearing and seeing them.
Diagnosed with druginduced psychosis, the doctor prescribed an antipsychotic medication that Jeremy took daily.
"Even while using, while I was on the medication it levelled me out to an extent," he said.
His voice dropped slightly as he added, "I couldn't stop using. I couldn't help myself. I was in addiction."
Doctors told Jeremy he could have psychotic episodes for up to two years after he stopped using substances.
Carol Tanner saw her son having an episode for the first time when she went to visit him in Alberta in 2018.
"That's when it really hit me, how bad it was," she said. "I didn't know what I was walking into."
He was walking around the apartment he shared with his girlfriend in the middle of the night, naked, turning on lights, saying people were on the patio trying to kill him.
Carol stayed for two weeks, then returned shortly after going home to stay for two months to try and get her son help.
Despite the good resources she found, Jeremy's downward spiral continued because he wasn't ready to treat his substance use disorder.
REFUSED HIS MEDICATION
After losing his job, his truck, his home and his family, Jeremy came home to Cape Breton and stayed with his mother.
"There were times I wanted to die, I was down on my knees crying. I didn't want to be here anymore," he said. "I didn't think anybody could fix me or save me."
When his antipsychotic medication ran out, Jeremy and his mother went to the Cape Breton Regional Hospital emergency room to get it refilled but the doctor there wouldn't.
Carol tried getting a family doctor to take him as a patient but nobody could.
They tried the regional hospital other times, some when Jeremy was brought in by ambulance but were never able to get it refilled.
Nova Scotia Health cited patient confidentiality when asked by email why someone might be refused a prescription for an antipsychotic medicine they're already on.
"Whenever someone visits the emergency department in crisis, their care and treatment plan would vary based on the needs of the patient and the physician's assessment at the time of presentation. Patient safety is at the centre of every care decision," said the written statement.
The medication he had been taking wore off and his delusions intensified. Carol
spent many nights up with her son, telling him he was safe, even though sometimes she didn't feel she was.
"That's when he started saying these things to me and thinking there were people in my house," she said.
"One time, he took one of the mattresses off the bed and he had it in my hallway, blocking my stairwell and he was at the top of the banister railing with a cellphone pointed down recording saying, 'There's someone down there. Don't go down there."
Eventually, they went to Dr. Mehmooda Naeem at New Horizons Addiction Rehabilitation Centre who wrote Jeremy the prescription he needed.
It was too late.
THE ARREST
Over a two-week period, Jeremy was brought to the regional hospital emergency room at least nine times. One time he was admitted for five days, but not prescribed any antipsychotic medication.
During those two weeks, Jeremy had three run-ins with police, two of which he said were handled well with officers responding in a way that didn't heighten his mental health crisis. The last time was different.
After using crack cocaine in his truck with a friend then bringing them home, Jeremy saw someone in his truck, waiting to kill him. There was no one there but Jeremy believed there was and went to Cape Breton Regional Police headquarters on Grand Lake Road for help.
While there, Jeremy began thinking police were against him. He called his mother to come help him. Carol remembers it was 3 a.m.
"He was screaming, 'Mom, they're surrounding me. You have to come,'" she said.
Carol jumped out of bed and rushed from her North Sydney home to help her oldest son.
Police called Emergency
Health Services (EHS) who arrived before Carol did. Although able to get Jeremy into the ambulance, he believed the paramedics wanted to harm him and he continued to be aggressive.
Jeremy said this caused the paramedic to ask police to remove him, which they did by aggressively pulling him out of the ambulance. It took five or six officers to restrain Jeremy, who believed he was fighting for his life.
Carol, who arrived during the altercation with police and arrest, said she fought with officers to have the ambulance called back so Jeremy, who was red-faced and sweating profusely, could get the medical attention he needed.
"When I pulled in there, the cops said you're not allowed to be here, in the back. I said, well, I am going to be here because my son is in here," she said.
"I told them he is not stepping foot in that building without me with him (because of the mental state he was in)."
Carol said after threatening to go live on Facebook and show people Jeremy was being denied medical treatment, police called EHS back and Jeremy was taken to the regional hospital. She went with him to keep him calm.
Cape Breton Regional Police spokesperson Desiree Magnus said they were unable to discuss the incident as it's "inappropriate to discuss details of a specific incident that could jeopardize an individual's right to privacy of health information."
She said officers are trained in mental health first aid routinely.
"Every situation an officer responds to is addressed based on the individual circumstances of the situation," she said via email.
"However, when dealing with persons in a crisis situation, an officer's primary objective is always de-escalation, based on dialogue."
LIFE CHANGING CALL
At the hospital, Jeremy again fell into paranoia believing hospital staff were going to kill him. At one point, he got a cell phone and started livestreaming on Facebook from the examination area. Currie saw that video and knew Jeremy needed help.
The next day he reached out and over a few calls convinced Jeremy to join him at Together We Can treatment facility, where Currie had been for about a month. Jeremy wasn't comfortable the first two weeks but now feels he's made family through the program.
With a job again, Jeremy's visitation with his daughter has resumed and he is ready to help another man hitting rock bottom get back up.
NOTE: Part three of the Gift of Recovery will be published Friday.