What Help for the Addicted?

Most of those asking for help have gone to ER for overdose or withdrawal symptoms. Withdrawal symptoms may be mistaken for a drug overdose at the ER. Many have sought help with their addiction but were met by total disbelief from those who had never heard of GHB addiction or were turned off to the system by what they felt was inadequate treatment. Many said that they spent only three or four days in treatment and then were sent home at a point when they recognized that they needed further treatment. They said that they realized that the doctors were ill informed or had no clue at all what they were dealing with, and that they would not subject themselves to such torture again. It was very difficult to convince them that proper referrals and medical treatment were possible. It was often difficult to convince them that “weaning” oneself from GHB is virtually impossible for most people, and that home detox just won’t work. Plus, it’s dangerous.

They typically asked us to “just tell me what drugs to take and let me do it at home.” Such information was, of course, not an option. We pointed out that GHB withdrawal is life endangering. That doctors needed to monitor them and treat their condition as it changed. First the doctors would likely have to deal with racing pulse and soaring blood pressure. Then they’d have to deal with the bouts of anxiety, sleeplessness, overall pain, hallucinations, depression, etc. A 10-14 day medical detox would be the best route, according to our experts, getting the worst of it behind them. Some facilities working with GHB withdrawal sedate heavily during that 10-14 day period, allowing them to “miss” the worst of the experience. In any case, doctor supervision and immediate medical care is the key. Those who chose that path are now thankful. Those who persisted with trying to wean themselves off or doing it at home with or without doctor supervision, typically found it a much longer, tougher method and some failed. Those who confided in supportive friends or relatives fared the best. Those who faced it alone suffered the most.

If they lived near one of the handful of experts we were working with, we referred them directly to our doctors. If not, we tried to help them locate treatment facilities and doctors capable of doing a medical detox and willing to learn. We then linked their doctors with our experts for advice. Most Poison Control Centers were very helpful in identifying medical detox facilities. Most treatment centers were helpful and willing to learn. We were shocked at those few who said they didn’t want to “be bothered” by anything new and potentially dangerous (even though they were set up to do a severe delirium tremens detox which is quite similar).

Our expert doctors use a variety of treatment plans and everyone is still trying to learn what works best. Frankly, the most important thing is SUPERVISION and SUPPORT for at least two weeks followed by ongoing counseling and monitoring. I’m indeed not a doctor, but have had the opportunity to view it all from a unique perspective. The ideal seems to be 10-14 days inpatient care, sedated through the worst of it so that medications can be changed as conditions change. Second choice seems to be intensive care through the first few days, the more the better, followed by at least residential care. Third choice is intensive care for the first days and then someone with them at all times at home or wherever so that the patient is NOT handling his or her own medication.

It is our hope to alert all treatment facilities and ERs to the life endangering quality of GHB withdrawal so that proper treatment will become the norm, not the exception. We also hope to alert everyone to the fact that it is often used to beat drug testing, sometimes by people in key public safety jobs.

One of the saddest inquiries we had was from a young man whose father is a doctor. He had gone to his father and confessed all, explaining that he was addicted to GHB, this product he was buying at a health food store and that he believed it would kill him. His father looked at him blankly and said, “How stupid can you be? If you bought it in a health food store, how dangerous could it be? Just STOP taking it!” That advice could have indeed been deadly.