“When you’re face-to-face with addiction you’re dancing with the Devil, and remember, the Devil doesn’t change, he changes you.”

As a paramedic many people died in my arms on the way to the Emergency Room. But even that scene can’t come close to trying to help loved ones come back from the dark side of addiction. It’s like holding them above your head in deep water; you so desperately want to save them, praying they breathe the life-saving air while your arms are burning with lactic acid and you’re taking in mouthfuls of water, willing to die for them because you remember how it was.  The laughter and late-night conversations, text messages reminding you how much they love you. That’s why we hang on, even when we don’t have the skill set. We fucking hang on to them with every ounce of energy we have because we remember them healthy. We remember their unique personality, what made them laugh and what made them cry.

There are many people who have tried to save a wife, a husband, a sibling, a child… and if some of my words resonate with you today, then mission accomplished. I want to help families understand it’s not their fault. Just like someone with diabetes needs professional help, so does an addict. They are not bad people. They are no different than you or me. Bottom line, they need treatment.

State of Addiction

What’s extremely important to understand is while addicts are high their only thought is to avoid being dope sick (i.e. withdrawal—cold chills, the runs, stomach pain so intense they spend hours in the fetal position and don’t eat for days). Meanwhile, their bodies are mining critical vitamins, minerals and amino acids from their bone and muscle while atrophying vital organs. Many have Hep C because of reusing dirty needles and their liver can’t detox the drugs.

Addicts are extremely good at verbal and mental manipulation, almost like a drug-induced bipolar disorder. To the untrained eye they seem fine when they’re high. They smile, laugh and have great conversations but the Devil’s operating system is hardwired in their neurological architecture with the goal of maintaining the daily drug supply by any means necessary.

This is the main reason rehab centers fail and the suboxone and methadone don’t work…and family members just give up. The best way for families to weather this storm is to understand that the person they knew is gone for now.

How to (Really) Help an Addict

As 11^th-hour interventionists, I and my Director of Research, Vicki Iliff, do this dance with the Devil every day and try our best to transfer learning to behavior. We have some of the most advanced multifactorial treatment protocols in the US and all that doesn’t mean a thing until you can get an addict to trust you. They’ve already burned every bridge and alienated all their friends and family members. All they have in their lives is their drug dealer who charges thirty bucks a bump—and they need four bumps to get through a 24-hour period.

Helping addicts see something they thought never existed, helping them see they can have a better life requires solving a puzzle piece by piece—you have to put them back together—from their brain chemistry to their intestinal tract.

Physicians who are addiction specialists (and I’ve met many) have to understand that the drugs elevated BDNF (brain derived neurotropic factor). This means the addict is living with brain tissue that was developed by taking the drug.

You can’t use Xanax and antidepressants to cure an addict. It has to start by correcting nutritional and hormonal deficiencies first with a focus on elevating the brain’s feel-good neurotransmitters, serotonin and dopamine. Xanax and antidepressants have dangerous side effects and are addicting in their own right. Most antidepressants damage the prefrontal cortex over time. This is one reason they have to be avoided, folks.

I’ve seen the best addiction physicians just quit because of their one-size-fits-all approach. Our new way of thinking and our approach will cause a paradigm shift in treatment that will go viral once we really get our program out there.

Our Addiction Protocol

The addiction exorcism takes place with hours of therapeutic listening followed by nutritional and hormonal support. Physically, the opiate bowel is where we focus first. The gut is the second brain, so that is ground zero to turn around addiction, be it opiates or alcohol.

Once we detox addicts and get them through the metabolic pain of withdrawals then we can see the fog of addiction in the brain start to dissipate. All this time we ramp up the intravenous nutritional support as well as correct microbiome imbalances. We don’t have to nuke the metabolism. We can target specific metabolic pathways like a sniper at the cellular level. We don’t ever look for a quick fix; this is a marathon that can take months.

I’ve danced with this Devil many fucking times and I’m still here with my team taking hits in the chest every day. I hope this helped a few of you because I know your pain so well.

Russ Scala, MA

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