Transcripts

BOB REHA: It's a busy day at a Fergus Falls coffee shop. Several women sit at a table, laughing and trading stories.

[LAUGHTER]

Ryan Hintz sits nearby. He fidgets in his chair while he sips coffee. Hintz is a recovering meth addict.

RYAN HINTZ: When I was about 12, I was into smoking pot and drinking. And when I was about 16, somebody came along with some meth. And that's how I got introduced to it.

BOB REHA: For the next six years, meth was the primary focus of Hintz' life. He went through a series of jobs. He stole from family and friends to feed his habit. He got in trouble with the law. He was arrested and spent time in jail. Along the way, Hintz bounced in and out of treatment programs, on average, once a year.

RYAN HINTZ: Ranging from outpatient, to relapse prevention, to inpatient, halfway houses, things like that, between 8 and 12 times, since I was 14.

BOB REHA: Hintz says meth is a tough addiction to beat, but it can be done. He hit rock bottom when he was busted on meth charges. He was ordered into treatment once again.

RYAN HINTZ: The treatment center I was in, a lot of people were there because they wanted to be there. So that played a big impact, I think, on my recovery. It just got me really excited about it right from the start. You have to want it. I mean, it has to not be fun anymore, in order to stop.

BOB REHA: That was 18 months ago. Hintz is still clean and sober. Now 23, Hintz is going to college. He's planning for his future.

JIM ATKINS: My name is Jim Atkins. And I am a recovering methamphetamine addict.

BOB REHA: For the past 10 years, Jim Atkins has worked at the Hazelden treatment center. He says treating meth addiction is difficult. Some drugs, like alcohol, can take 48 to 72 hours to clear through your body. With meth, it can take six weeks or longer to detox. Many meth addicts are still high when they're admitted to treatment. Atkins says they're agitated and paranoid. They'll have violent mood swings and hallucinations. Meth addicts can lose a lot of weight. The drug can change the color of your skin. Atkins says in some cases, a meth addiction is misdiagnosed as schizophrenia.

JIM ATKINS: We have to sort through what is drug-induced, which mental health issues are drug-induced, and which might be there regardless of the drug. Some of those symptoms are short term. Some of them go away, some of them don't.

BOB REHA: Atkins says sorting out which behaviors are meth-related takes time and care. Most insurance programs only cover 30 days of treatment. In fact, most addiction programs are 30 days or less. Atkins says it's common for someone hooked on meth to go days, even weeks without sleep. He says when the drug leaves the body, all an addict wants to do is sleep. Atkins says that eats up precious time in the recovery program.

JIM ATKINS: The way that a lot of insurance policies are written and managed, care companies are forced to operate because of their funding constraints. They want to measure progress and what's happening today that's better than yesterday. And when someone's in early recovery, when someone's in treatment for methamphetamine addiction, you're not going to see dramatic breakthroughs from one day to the next.

BOB REHA: Ask a recovering addict and they'll tell you, the high from meth is incredible. Brad Brown is an addiction counselor for Prairie at Saint John's, in Fargo. Brown describes meth as enhancing the pleasure pathways in your brain.

BRAD BROWN: And releases large amounts of dopamine and feel-good type chemicals throughout the brain. And what happens is the brain has so much of that being released in it at one time that it becomes accustomed to it, if you will. And it likes that. It likes the pleasure that it's getting. And for some people who are using, the goal is to try to seek that pleasure every time.

BOB REHA: The problem is it takes more and more meth to reach that pleasure point. Brown says, in the process, the drug numbs the addict's senses. He says treating a meth addict is difficult, but not impossible. Figures from the Minnesota Department of Human Services show more than 3,900 people were admitted to treatment programs for meth addiction last year. More than half have completed treatment. Brown is not aware of any statistics tracking the success rate of treatment for meth addicts. But he suspects the numbers are similar to those who seek professional help for any addiction.

BRAD BROWN: 10 people come into treatment. Of those ten, three are probably going to clean up with the first treatment. Three are going to relapse and clean up later. And it might be a year later, it might be five years later, it might be 15 years later. And then four are probably not going to clean up. So that means they're probably going to die from their illness.

BOB REHA: Some programs are beginning to establish a database on recovery figures. Gerard Voss is an addiction counselor at the regional treatment center in Fergus Falls. Voss says defining success is tough.

GERARD VOSS: Does success include complete abstinence since treatment, not using of any chemicals? Or does success include a person going out, and maybe she's relapsed a couple of times, but she's turned that around. She's gone back to the meetings, and now she's back on track. So it all depends on how you measure that success when you start looking at success rates.

BOB REHA: Voss says the most effective treatments integrate several approaches. Those include the 12-step program used by Narcotics and Alcoholics Anonymous. He says a spiritual approach appeals to some, but there is no magic solution. Greg Peterson is clinical director at the regional treatment center. He says people need to understand it's unrealistic to expect a meth addict to break their habit easily. He says the physical challenges meth addiction present make a first time success unlikely.

GREG PETERSON: Throwing the onus back at a person that they're a total failure because they tried and they didn't make it gives you the mindset that, well, gee, since I'm a failure already, then why should I even bother to try again. And I think that's a mistaken thing.

BOB REHA: Counselors say being addicted to meth is not an excuse for a person's behavior, but an explanation. They say the key to recovery is getting an addict to realize if their behavior doesn't change, they'll die. Ryan Hintz seems to have gotten the message. For Hintz, recovery means going to meetings, talking with his sponsor. He's made new friends, people who have nothing to do with meth. He doesn't miss his old way of life.

RYAN HINTZ: I did have a guy once show some to me out of the blue, completely unexpected. And I could feel like I did some just by seeing it. And it was quite the experience for me. I just called my sponsor right away and called some friends right away. And that was that.

BOB REHA: Hintz says he's lucky. His family never gave up on him. Hintz says staying clean is hard work, but now he has a future to work toward. He's studying to be a counselor. He wants to help others beat meth. Bob Reha, Minnesota Public Radio, Moorhead.