# Presentation: 526546

## Relapse Prevention

**Relapse Prevention**

**Access to Health**

**Get Started**

**Engagement**

**Access to Hope**

**Alliance**

**Access to Help**
**Outpatient or **
**Inpatient**

**Rehabilitation**

**Access to Support**

**Get Clean**

**Stay Clean**

**Stay Healthy**

**1st Week**

**2nd Week—12 Week**

**3—9 Months**

**9-24 Months**

_**Access to Recovery from Meth**_

**Draft**

**Billings Area **
**Behavioral Health**

***Get Medical care & Exercise***

***Sleep, Eat & Drink Water***

## Guide to Recovery from Meth

- “Know Meth: 2005 Call to Action”
- Billings Montana
- November 16, 2005

## Recovery from Meth is Hard

- People CAN get off meth
- They don’t know HOW
- We need to know HOW to help
- We need to KNOW METH

## Guide to Recovery from Meth

-                           Four Steps
- Get started
- Get clean
- Stay clean
- Stay healthy

## Step One:  Get Started

- What do I need to know in order to help a patient, client, friend or loved one start to get off meth?

## Starting to get off meth

- We need to be ready to respond when the user is ready to stop.
- Getting off meth can be started at home, in the hospital, in a treatment center, in jail, as long as meth isn’t around

## “Don’t meth users have to be detoxed?”

- If detox means getting the drug out of your system, then the answer is: “Yes.”
- If detox means being in a hospital or detox center, getting medication, then the answer is:  “It depends.”

## Brain damage and Brain healing

- Meth poisons the brain
- Meth takes away the ability to feel “OK”
- It takes about 2 years to heal the brain

## Withdrawal symptoms

- Feeling sad, depressed, and/or suicidal
- Extremely tired and sleepy
- Stimulant cravings
- Hard to concentrate
- Anxiety
- No energy
- Don’t care about anything (apathy)

## What to do in Step One

- Keep as far away from meth as you can.
- Don’t be around people who use.
- Tell someone you trust that you are going to stop using.
- You need a safe place, and support for a few days to a couple of weeks to do this safely.

## When is medical care needed?

- Can’t eat or drink
- Seeing things/hearing voices/paranoid
- Awful anxiety
- Feels like killing his/herself
- Scaring other people/violent

## When should police be called?

- Methamphetamine causes paranoia
- People can hurt themselves and others

## Hope:  a strong medicine

- You and the meth user need to know that it is possible to get clean from meth.
- Studies show that up to 30% of meth users  can be clean and sober a year following treatment that is specific for meth.

## Step 2:  Get clean

- After the first week or two, they feel better
- Step 2 is all about not using meth.
- Craving is the enemy.

## Getting Clean:What do I do now?

- 2 weeks to 3 months off meth
- Get structure
- Schedule non-using activities
- Get medical care
- Get dental care
- Get inpatient or outpatient addiction treatment.

## What to do in Step Two:Getting Clean

- Get rid of reminders of meth
- Stay away from drug-users

## Craving: “drug hunger”

- If you were starving, and you knew where you could get some food----that’s what craving feels like
- Getting clean from meth means learning how to stay away from the drug and people who use it

## Getting clean: get rid of reminders of meth

- Clean up their environment
-               Are there any drugs around?
-               Any paraphenalia? (light bulbs, needles)
-                A non-using friend or family member helps collect and throw these away.
-                                                                                   CSAT, 1999

## Getting clean: Stay away from users

- Stay away from your using friends/dealers.
- Get rid of their phone numbers.
- You may need to get rid of your cell phone.
- Avoid high-risk areas: neighborhoods, houses, bars, anywhere you used to get or use drugs.
-                                                                                CSAT, 1999

## Triggers:You need a plan

- Triggers are reminders of using meth.
- They can lead to craving, and use.
- Triggers can be internal or external.
- You need a plan to deal with triggers.
- Plan how to avoid them
- Plan what to do if you start thinking about using.
-                                                                 CSAT, 1999

## Withdrawal symptomscan come back

- They can come back weeks or months later
- This is delayed stimulant withdrawal
- People can get through this
- It helps to be in a recovery (supportive) program

## Meth and Depression

- People who use methamphetamine may become depressed when they stop.
- Depression feels like fatigue, apathy, sadness, and hopelessness.

## What helps depression?

- Exercise  at least 3 hours a week
- Good nutrition
- Non-using friendships
- Spiritual support/practices
- Cultural activities

## What about medication?

- There is no one medication that can “cure” people from meth addiction.
- People who are significantly depressed while recovering from meth may be helped by medication.

## Step 3: Stay Clean

- 3-9 months off of meth
- Some days are better than others
- Craving is less
- Risk of relapse still high
- Depression may return

## Step 3:Avoiding Relapse

- Don’t use alcohol or other drugs
- Don’t go back with drug-using friends
- Don’t go back to drug-using sex
- Watch out for triggers
- HALT
- “Get a (positive) life!”
-                                       from Havassy et al., 1993

## Boredom: a trigger to use

- Boredom can result in craving.
- The community can help by organizing clean/sober activities.
- Exercise
- Sweat lodge
- 12 Step or other recovery groups
- Helping others

## Step 4:  Stay Healthy

- It takes up to two years for the brain to heal from meth
- Holistic wellness
- Physical
- Mental
- Social
- Spiritual wellness

## Summary

- Methamphetamine is toxic to the brain
- Brain healing starts when use stops
- Healing can take up to two years
- Medication may be needed
- Addiction treatment helps
- Family/community support is crucial.

## 
CSAT T.I.P. #33, “Treatment for Stimulant Use Disorders,”  SAMHSA,1999 is the primary source for this information.

Thanks to Leeann Johnson, Pat Calf Looking, and all those who contributed and/or reviewed the contents.
This is a work in progress.
Your comments are welcome.

- CSAT T.I.P. #33, “Treatment for Stimulant Use Disorders,”  SAMHSA,1999 is the primary source for this information.
- Thanks to Leeann Johnson, Pat Calf Looking, and all those who contributed and/or reviewed the contents.
- This is a work in progress.
- Your comments are welcome.