The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Local speaks out on addiction
One soultion: New devices to wear on the ear block withdrawal pain to help kick the habit
A familiar descent into a withdrawal nightmare wracked 30-year-old Casey Hopkins’ body almost three months ago.
But that was a necessary step toward kicking an opioid addiction that began 10 years ago with a back injury.
Four years ago he turned to a less expensive heroin addiction, he said.
“It’s insanity. It’s a hamster wheel,” Hopkins said. “It’s crazy.”
After trying every method to quit — and returning to the nightmare every time — Hopkins agreed to serve as one of the first men
in Lorain County to try a Bridge device. And it works, he says. Hopkins said he never expected to acquire a drug addiction. As a youth he played baseball and raced motocross, and none of his family used illegal drugs.
He attended Keystone High School in Lagrange, transferred to Lorain County JVS to study culinary arts, but left there.
“It wasn’t for me,” Hopkins said. “I graduated from Elyria High School in 2005. I like to cook. I didn’t want to cook for a bunch of people for the rest of my life.”
At the age of 19, he hurt his back at work when carting steel.
“My left foot caught on a rock,” Hopkins said. “My upper body did a 180. My lower body stayed still. It was very painful. It laid me up for about a month.”
He returned to work, then changed jobs. He worked for a landscaping company for about seven years in North Ridgeville. Most recently he worked as a crane operator for a steel mill, he said.
“I was employed the whole time of my addiction,” Hopkins said. “I lost my job because of transportation. I bought a new truck in 2013. My addiction issue took over and I didn’t care about paying my bills or anything else.
“It was like a hamster wheel of a hellish inferno, just round and round and round and wanting to get out but afraid to get out because of the effects of non-using,” Hopkins said. “It’s a way of life. It’s insanity.”
Withdrawals rule an addict’s life, he said, categorizing
them at different levels.
Mild withdrawals warning him to seek another hit of heroin he experienced 50-60 times, he estimated.
But severe withdrawals overtook him every time he tried to quit using heroin.
“It feels like your insides are getting torn out,” Hopkins said. “The stomach cramps, the vomiting, the diarrhea, the not being able to sleep. The anxiety is at 1,000 percent. Don’t use. It’s miserable.”
Hopkins tried to kick the addiction at home, but could not handle the withdrawals.
“Then I went into detox,” said Hopkins, who currently lives in a treatment facility in Sheffield Township. “Nobody knows why we go back. This is my fifth in-patient. I ask myself why I go back out. It’s always because I stopped doing the things I’m supposed to be doing.
“Sometimes it can be ‘life,’” Hopkins said. “Sometimes life gets hard and me, as an addict, I run to what I know best, and that is drugs.”
This time around, his sobriety date is June 1, two days before he received the Bridge.
And at the time no heroin was in his system, he said, it was 100 percent fentanyl, an elephant tranquilizer that has been causing overdose deaths in Lorain County. The heroin life can be scary, friendless, filled with dealers and other users. And addicts tend to walk away when someone else overdoses, he said.
“I’ve had nine months sober,” Hopkins said. “I was in a bad situation with a girl. I knew what not to do. I didn’t want to use because of what happened. Then one day, you know, ‘Why not?’ That’s part of the thinking I’m trying to change: Not to use just because something happened, you hit a rut.”
He probably will stay in a sobriety group for the rest of his life.
“The guys at the house give you support,” Hopkins said. “It makes you feel good. You can live life without drugs.”
Before he was asked to try the Bridge, he watched a video demonstration of the device and he was skeptical.
“This guy was in withdrawal really bad,” Hopkins said. “They put it on, and in 15 or 20 minutes you could see him getting calm.”
Another option is to try a prescription to kick the habit.
“I said, ‘If I’m going to get clean, I don’t want to take another drug,’” Hopkins said. “The day the doctor put the Bridge on, I was in withdrawal pretty hard. Within 15 minutes my anxiety stopped.”
Calmness followed, and after about an hour he felt good, he said.
“It didn’t take away all of the withdrawal,” Hopkins said, “It just made the worst part of it disappear. It was wonderful.”
His lingering symptoms included mild cold sweats and chills, he said.
“I didn’t have any nausea, no diarrhea, no vomiting,” Hopkins said, “which I would have had if I didn’t have it on.”
The Bridge was implanted June 3 by LCADA Medical Director Dr. Cynthia Brown in Lorain.
Dr. Tom Lumsden, who specializes in addiction medicine in Elyria, said up to 20 Bridge devices have been implanted out of 50 donated to LCADA by Nord Family Foundation.
The devices cost $500 each, said Joe Matuscak, director of marketing, development and communication at LCADA.
The Bridge fits on a person’s ear, and they wear it for five days, Lumsden said.
The person must be in withdrawal when the Bridge is implanted, Lumsden said. He inserts four tiny probes into the ear, which is uncomfortable for the patient, and the probes give a pattern of electrical pulses that block withdrawal pain and the worst of the symptoms.
Hopkins said implanting the device felt like getting your ear pierced, and it made all the difference for him.
“I had a little bit of post acute withdrawals, after using for so many years,” Hopkins said. “Your body is trying to heal. My knees and my back would ache for about a month. I’m not experiencing withdrawal at all whatsoever any more.”
Working the recovery system one day at a time, Hopkins looks forward to continued sobriety but isn’t sure of life a year from now.
“All I know is it’s going to be a lot better than it has been,” Hopkins said, adding a message for other addicts. “It works. It works. Give it a shot. Don’t think there’s nobody out there who’s going to help you, because there are people who will help. That’s what I thought for a long time. Take advantage of it. It’s here and it works.”