HUNTINGTON -- One snort and one injection was all it took to get Shayna Lacy addicted to heroin.
The 29-year-old from West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle tried heroin after her father's death in 2004. She ran with the addiction. Doing so led to her shoplifting, robbing people and conning her own family.
Lacy overdosed four times. Her baby tested positive for opiates at birth. That led to an abuse and neglect charge, along with the state's decision to take custody of her only child.
It was the wake-up call she had been needing for years.
Lacy reluctantly agreed to long-term treatment at Prestera's Renaissance program in Huntington. She's been clean for 11 months. She is counting down the days until she regains custody of her 8-month-old son, Trenton.
"I lived to get high," she said. "I wouldn't wake up in the morning and eat breakfast. It was wake up and put a syringe full of heroin in my arm. Lunchtime came, and it wasn't lunch. It was another needle of heroin. Dinnertime, same thing."
Kim Miller manages women addiction services for Prestera. She said Lacy's story is typical -- conquering the drug takes a mix of commitment, motivation and persistence -- and counseling is often needed to help addicts and their families.
Helping the addict
The National Institute on Drug Abuse describes heroin as an opiate. The group estimates the typical heroin abuser will inject up to four times a day. It states major withdrawal symptoms peak in the first 24 to 48 hours after the last use. The symptoms include restlessness, insomnia, vomiting and diarrhea.
Miller said withdrawal can last seven to 14 days. Lacy compared it to Hell.
Basic recovery options include outpatient and residential services. Drugs also are used to help the addict through withdrawal, according Miller and Huntington Treatment Center Director Nancy Price.
Miller said using medication is the most humane way to kick a heroin addiction.
One popular drug is naltrexone. It's commonly known as Revia and Vivitrol. They said those medications help eliminate cravings for the heroin. It does so by blocking the receptor sites in one's brain, thus blocking the person from experiencing the pleasurable effects of heroin.
The other prescription options include burphomine and methadone. They referred to both as opiate replacement therapy. That is because both drugs use opiates to maintain the person from going through withdraw. Then, both medications work like naltrexone to block the brain's receptors to other opiates so to eliminate heroin's euphoric effects and the person's cravings.
Price's treatment center provides methadone to heroin addicts. She said determining one's treatment strategy depends on many factors. Those include substance itself, the length of time it has been abused and the presence of any psychiatric issues. She said the level of family support, employment status and legal issues should also be considered.
But Miller said drugs cannot work without counseling. It helps recovering addicts enhance their motivation, prevent relapse and fulfill other needs.
The local court system is using a day report strategy to fight addiction. It's a court-ordered program that can feature a mix of sanctions and counseling, said Shawna Rocknich, director of Cabell County's center.
Outside of the court system, Miller said counseling can be received in outpatient care, along with short-term and long-term residential therapy.
Outpatient care provides the patient with access to needed medications, along with therapy on individual, group and family levels. It also requires no waiting list.
Residential programs require someone to leave their house and live in the facility's controlled environment. Miller said that helps people with more serious addictions and others who cannot return home without being back in an environment favorable to drug abuse.
Short-term residential programs can last several days to three months. Longer programs call for three months to a year or more.
The region's major problem is a lack of long-term facilities. There are only 210 long-term, residential treatment beds in the entire state. The Renaissance program accounts for 31 of those beds.
Miller said plans are in the works to open another facility, referred to has the Healing Place. It would be a long-term, peer-directed treatment facility. Clients would leave when they are clean and able to successfully re-enter society.
The Healing Place initiative is based on a strategy from Louisville, Ky. Miller said many questions remain and no land has been selected. She hopes the program will become a reality within the next year.
Helping the family
Heroin abuse, like any addiction, can create turmoil for the user's family or loved ones, Miller and Price said, and they need help, too.
It led to divorce for Daniel Wagoner's ex-wife, Ann Marie Clay. She is the mother of his three children. Police believe heroin claimed his life Nov. 5.
"He died twice to me," she said. "He was the love of my life."
Mark Young's family also experienced some of the shame and embarrassment. His stepson, Christopher Dishman, died Nov. 10.
"It's not something that you're exactly wanting to publicize," he said. "We tried to explain to him what it was doing to him and what he was losing. ... We supported him when he was doing the right things and tried to stop him from doing the wrong things. It was what every person would normally do with a child that has this problem."
Cindy Mays still blames herself for not doing more to help her husband, Teddy Mays. He died more than six months ago. She said he spent about 14 days in jail prior to his death. She would not allow him to return to their business for fear he would have close access to drugs. Her plan worked until he found another way to make the trip.
"More or less it was just tough love and stuff like that, but it didn't work," she said. "I figure I may have been too rough on him because I know it was something that he wanted to do. He wanted to get off of them, but his body just wouldn't let him."
It's a disheartening situation for most families. Miller said they desperately want to help, but the shame and lack of knowledge leads to them making wrong moves.
She said the solution is counseling for the families. She said anyone who wants such counseling could call (800) 642-3434.
"You can't make people change," she said. "For family members, they are powerless over the person using again or not. That is not in their control. They've tried to control it. They've tried to stop the person from going out the door. They try to limit or ration money to them so they don't have enough money to get what they need, but somehow the people always manage to find the drug."
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