Perspectives Vary on Treating Opioid Addiction

Viewpoints on the best way to treat opioid addiction continue to vary and, with so many lives at stake, it is an issue we must continue to talk about.

That was the take-home message at a meeting of the 100 Families Initiative in Greene County, Arkansas. Members of a panel made up of people dedicated to addressing drug addiction each spoke about their ideas for solutions.

“These are discussions and conversations that we need to be having,” said Nicole Hanners, a peer recovery support specialist at NEA Divine Intervention. She expressed concern that some recovery programs, like certain faith-based programs, do not allow participants to have mental health medications or use medication assisted therapy (MAT). Faith-based programs often emphasize complete abstinence in favor of willpower and spiritual healing. She said that addiction is a brain disorder that impacts decision-making and impulse control. 

Hanners said she is a deeply religious person and thanked God for her ability to heal. “He healed my mind and restored me to sanity. But the healing didn’t come from me instantaneously. It takes time. For me it took nine months. In those early months of recovery, I needed help from medications so that I was not suicidal. We have to understand that some people are going to need suboxone or methadone.” 

She said while faith-based recovery is valuable for many, it’s important to recognize that different pathways exist, and some people may need additional support like MAT. 

“We are in the South and we are in the Bible belt. But we have to come out of this mindset that abstinence is the only way and Jesus is the only pathway. I believe that Jesus will have you walking in freedom and victory, but until He chooses to do it in his timing, people might need a little help along the way. We have to be okay with the pathway that individuals choose to take. If they are not ready for abstinence-based recovery and they need mental health medication, we as a society and a recovery community need to be okay with that,” added Hanners.

But concerns about medication assisted therapy to recover from opioid addiction continue to weigh on the minds of some, like Marcus Walker of The Master’s Way. He worries that giving people opioids legally could fuel the epidemic. “What would stop the average person struggling from addiction from going to get loaded up? The problem that we have is controlling those meds. They abuse those meds to stay high. I’m not saying that this is the case for everybody, but unless you have medical people on staff, how do you control the access to these meds?”

Aaron Bunch, community outreach coordinator for Ideal Option, a company that provides MAT services, said he has concerns about the stigma surrounding these treatments. He said drugs like Buprenorphine don’t make people high but rather eliminate cravings and make people feel more normal. Bunch explained that opioids stimulate a surge in dopamine, reinforcing a sense of euphoria that the brain begins to perceive as its new baseline. He said an opioid abuse disorder is a medical diagnosis, but many people don’t see it that way. He said there is a perception that a person can easily stop. 

“You probably know people who smoked for twenty years and then stopped cold turkey. They threw the cigarettes out the window one day and don’t need them anymore," added Bunch. "Some people can do that but not everybody can. If a person needs suboxone but you keep telling them they can’t take any medication, you’re setting them up to relapse, overdose, and die. People are overdosing and dying because we insist that they have to do it with abstinence.” 

“People can come to a clinic to get injections of the medications now, so you can take the dosing out of their hands. It helps to get people safely off of narcotics. It’s not the same as weaning off of a coffee or cigarette addiction. The medications get a bad rap but they keep people from getting sick while they are trying to get off of the narcotics. Don’t take the option off the table,” said Bunch.

Chelsea Eppes, the reentry program manager for In His Wings, said she was addicted to opioids for many years after a doctor gave her a prescription. “The doctor prescribed them to me and it was a decade of chaos and confusion from a condition that wasn’t even that serious. I tried to tell myself I could just stop taking them, but when I tried it would make me so sick.”

Hanners explained that the disruption of dopamine levels caused by opioid abuse can take up to a year to stabilize after quitting. As a result, individuals in recovery may experience prolonged periods of depression, highlighting the critical need for ongoing support and awareness throughout the healing process.

Michael Stuht, the director of The Lord’s Refuge, said addiction can lead to actions that seem selfish, such as prioritizing substance use over responsibilities. “We refer to The Lord’s Refuge as an accountability program. And I try to teach my guys to love their family more than they love themselves. I’m nine years clean now and if I was to follow my heart and do what feels good, I’d do some pills again. But I don’t because I try to love my neighbor as myself. I try to think outside the box of me and what feels good.”

“Most of the residents at The Lord’s Refuge are addicted to methamphetamine. We don’t have any currently that came in with opiate addiction,” explained Stuht. “When someone calls and they are addicted to opioids, I typically recommend the suboxone clinic. I think it’s great. However, I have several friends who are on suboxone who have been on it for five or six years. So I have not seen the whole weaning off thing. I have not seen that happen a whole lot.”

Stuht questioned whether long-term suboxone use is appropriate. He said he struggled with opiate addiction for nine years and then went cold turkey (stopping all opioid use abruptly). 

“I believe that addiction is a process,” said Telly Roberts, an advanced peer recovery specialist at Greene County drug court. “It can be prevented with help from people, like all of us sitting here on stage, support groups, church, or loved ones. Addiction is not curable. It is something we battle every day of our lives.”

Roberts said she went to Agape House to get treatment for her methamphetamine addiction and was drug free for eight and a half years. She then fell back into her addiction for four more years and has now been clean for around six years. “The reason why I relapsed is because I got away from my support. I got away from church. When you don’t keep those things going when you are in recovery, you can easily fall.”

“Many people have been brought up in an environment where addiction is commonplace,” said Walker of The Master’s Way. “So they just pick it up naturally. That is what they’ve learned.”

“There is a lot of trauma, and it starts in the home early on,” noted Bunch. He shared an example from his wife, a kindergarten teacher, who has witnessed firsthand the challenges faced by young children in her classroom. Many of her students experience homelessness and severe trauma, including having parents who have overdosed on drugs, suffered sexual abuse, or lost parents to suicide. Bunch emphasized the long-term impact of these experiences, stating, “If these kids don’t get help, they could likely be the substance abusers of tomorrow.”

“I believe it is also a brain disease and some people are born with it,” said Jamie Mann, the executive director of The Way. She said this hereditary component of addiction is influenced by both genetics and environment. “But you can be rehabilitated from that. It does not have to last forever.”

Related Stories: