Recovering addict reaches out to drug abusers in Labrador

Teri Drosch was in her mid-twenties when the drug addiction took over.

At first, it was cocaine.

As a young mother with two kids and a lot of other pressures in her life, it beganas a coping mechanism something that made her feel good. But soon, she was using all the time.

Then it was morphine, starting with a post-surgery prescription.

It took the place of cocaine in her life, and when she stopped taking the pills she felt sick,

One day, she ran out, and realized she couldn't do without them.

"My whole life collapsed after that ... I picked up cocaine again, and both went hand in hand with each other. Back in 2015, by the time I opened my eyes again to reality, I had nothing left," she said.

"My children were gone, my husband was gone, my home was gone, my whole family was gone and I was all alone. Even my little dogs were gone. I couldn't take care of them, and I couldn't take care of myself. I didn't even know who I was anymore."

It was either going to be death, an institution, or jail.- Teri Drosch, on realizing she needed help.

By the endshe was taking pills just to avoid withdrawal.

"It is really, really horrible," she said. "Bad pain, nauseous, throwing up, defecating yourself, feeling like there's bugs crawling all over you, like your skin is made of tinfoil. It is a very, very, very, very horrible thing to go through. It is one of the worst physical withdrawals that there is."

"It was either going to be death, an institution, or jail," Drosch said about the realization she needed to find help.

Services lacking in Labrador

She went to Labrador-Grenfell Health for counselling, but found herself facing a huge waitlist.

After a suicide attempt, she woke up in the hospital in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, was moved to the top of that list, and started seeing a counsellor every week for 16 months.

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Eventually, she got into a treatment program in Ontario, where there are support groups every night, full of people struggling with the same thing.

It's something Drosch, and other addicts, come to rely on but nothing like it was available in her community.

"When anybody goes from Goose Bay to an outside facility to get drug addiction treatment, we are all faced with a slap in the face when we come back to town for after-care services," she said.

So she started her own, part of what she saidis now her calling in life,a chapter of Narcotics Anonymous that has been meeting for about a month now, reaching out to addicts who are still suffering, and to those who are already in recovery.

Drosch's story is becoming more common in central Labrador, and it's a world Dr. Gabe Woollam is seeing more and more often.

Addressing the gap

He's a physician at the Labrador Health Centre in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, and the vice-president of medical services for Labrador-Grenfell Health.

"It's becoming a very big problem here," he said.

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Woollam started practicing in Labrador in 2008, and saidhealth care workers are seeing far more people now with problems related to drug addiction, especially opiates and cocaine.

"And we're seeing the mental health effects of that, the physical health effects of that, and the social costs of that," he said. "This is becoming quite urgent, and we need to find ways as a community, as a health authority, to address these problems in any way we can."

The province is stepping up its fight against what is being called an opiate epidemic.

Naloxone kits,the antidote to an opiate overdose, are now available across the province, along with training for patients and their loved ones.

There is also more access to what is called "maintenance therapy," such as methadone and suboxone.

But Woollam says people like Drosch are key as well.

"We're very happy to see a Narcotics Anonymous group starting in this community," he said. "I think that's been a gap for some time to have a place where people with opiate problems can go to talk, and get peer support, and learn about their options."