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“Every addict has two internal
conversations going on,” says Lynn
Bertram, MD, a psychiatrist and the
medical director at St. Helena Recovery
Center. “There’s the one that’s saying
they want to keep using — and the one
that knows they need help.”
Loyd tried to help himself by detoxing
at home. He spent almost a month
in his pajamas, “shaking, shivering,
sweating…wishing I was dead.”
He finally realized what addiction
specialists know: He could not do it
alone. That’s because addiction is a
chronic brain disease that alters areas
in the brain that are crucial to judgment,
decision making and behavior. And
like other chronic diseases — asthma,
diabetes, hypertension — addiction
requires lifelong daily treatment.
In desperate need of help, Loyd called
St. Helena Recovery Center. “They said
they had an opening in a week, and
I said, ‘I’ve got to come today.’ They
squeezed me in.” Loyd believes he was
more dead than alive when he arrived at
St. Helena. “I had one goal in mind — to
survive. All I focused on was not dying.”
From addiction to
When 70-year-old
Loyd retired in 2008,
he felt good.
You can’t do it alone
I didn’t feel like drinking or
using,” he recalls, referring
to the addictions to alcohol
and cocaine he believed
he had under control
for most of his adult life.
But when he injured his
back in December of
2012, the Vicodin that
was prescribed for pain
triggered a relapse. “Within
six months, I was taking
15 to 20 pills a day. I was
drinking 24 hours a day.
I could not stop.
“
”
Lynn Bertram, MD
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L i v e Yo u n g e r L o n g e r