Doctor speaks of drug addiction intervention

Categories

Addiction Treatment
Alcohol
Drugs
Gambling
In the papers
On TV

News Archive

Home » News » Drugs » Doctor speaks of drug addiction intervention

by Change | 2 Nov 2009

Bookmark

E-mail

A doctor from Montana has relived his experience of becoming a drug addict, self-medicating with painkillers, until an intervention by the police eventually made him tackle his problems.

A doctor who was addicted to painkillers has told of his experiences and revealed how it took an intervention by the police to help him beat his problem.

Michael Metzger of Montana has told the Billings Gazette how he used to self-medicate while working 65-hour weeks as a doctor and eventually became addicted to painkillers, resulting in his need to enter a rehab center to tackle his addiction.

However, the doctor admits that it was only because he got caught by others that his addiction was stopped in its tracks.

Dr Metzger explained that he was eventually caught by the police and the embarrassment of that intervention eventually forced him to clean up his ways and seek addiction treatment.

"The worst moment is when I think you realize that you are emotionally, physically and chemically addicted," he told the newspaper.

"There's the feeling of not being able to survive without the drug, and physically you really can't," he explained.

Dr Metzger's experience demonstrates the importance of an outside intervention in helping to tackle a drug addiction.

Often, addicts fail to admit there is a problem, or that they cannot control their addiction, unless some external pressure is applied.

This can be through friends or family, rather than by the police, but an intervention can make the difference between an addict continuing their spiral of addiction and making a clean break with the help of addiction rehabilitation.

Bookmark this: