KEYE TV, Austin, Michelle Valles tells her story of prescription addiction

 

 

Prescription pain killers have become the fastest growing part of America’s drug problem, causing more deadly overdoses than illegal drugs.

So many people begin with a legitimate need for the drugs, but get hooked somewhere along the way. And many times they are ashamed and don’t seek help because of the stigma.

It kept KEYE TV’s Michelle Valles from telling her story until now.

December 6, 2009, was supposed to be my time to shine in Dancing with the Stars Austin.  I was extremely nervous, and terrified of my “next step,” not in my dance routine, but in my life. 

While I knew what was coming next, no one in the audience did.  That same night, I went straight to rehab.

I was among the millions of people who became addicted to sleeping pills. Mine was Ambien.

The dependency got worse after anchoring the evening news for 10 years, then switched in 2008 to anchor the morning newscasts at KEYE TV. 

A four year addiction that got worse last year as I battled depression and started taking prescribed Vicodin to deal with my chronic back and knee pain that stemmed from past injuries.

I tried to stop many times before entering Starlight Recovery doing two things doctors say you should never do, I tried to cut cold turkey and I tried to do it alone.

For 30 days Starlite Recovery, just outside Kerrville, was my home and calling home to tell my family I’d be spending Christmas and ringing in 2010 at a rehab clinic was one of the most heartbreaking things I’ve ever had to do. 

Admitting I had a problem wasn’t easy to swallow.  I recently went back to visit the staff of Starlite to talk about this growing problem.

"I know when I arrived here, I thought, no this is not for me, I don't belong here,” I told Steve Thomason, the Clinical Director of Starlite.

Thomason laughs and tell me, “yeah, I hate to put numbers to that but, 99.9 percent don't believe they belong here.  In fact, I myself said the same thing on the third day I was in treatment.”

Thomason is also in recovery, in fact, 90 percent of the clinicians at Starlite are too.

In rehab, the counselors and trained staff guide you through the medical detox, or “peel the onion”, to get to the root of the real problem.

Thomason says, “The drug becomes a coping skill, and is put in place to deal with anxiety, depression, anger whatever the individual maybe facing.”

But here at Starlite I learned to face my demons through daily counseling, education and by turning to my higher power.

This is where the healing begins, and it’s also where you learn the 12 steps.

Thomason says, “At the root of the 12 steps is changing the way you think.  By the time an individual becomes a full blown addict, they are more often than not wrapped up in playing the victim, blaming other people for their problems and have an inability to own and accept their part in their behavior and accountability."

And what I came to find at Starlite was folks from all walks of life, from “Yale to jail,” as we called them. Everyone from educators, professionals, nurses, even church leaders.  All of us left our families and jobs determined to battle not just an addiction, but a stigma.

Thomason adds, "I'm sure you've heard people say why don't you just quit? Well, that's not the way it works you know. For hundreds of years, addiction was looked at as a weakness of will or a moral character defect.  But what genetics has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt is that addiction is genetic.”

And learning about that in rehab is just the beginning, in fact, leaving rehab is almost as frightening as entering it.

“You're basically getting the remodel done on the house you just tore down.  We've basically got a couple of walls up by the time you leave treatment, it's a long way to go still” says Thomason.

He’s right.  It’s a long journey and one of the things I did when I got out of Starlite was I called all my doctors and told them about my treatment.  I also made peace with myself, those I love and continue to turn to my higher power. I’m also fortunate to work for a TV station and staff who eradicated that stigma by supporting me from the beginning, encouraging me to tell my story in hopes that that it will help you or someone you love.

Thomason hopes that will happen too, “I feel the more open we are about our own recovery perhaps the more people will see that and say, you know I can do this too.”

**I'm including some helpful resources that may help you or someone you love going through addiction.  While rehab may not be for everyone, there is something out there for them.  Some of these places take insurance and can be costly, but I am also including some places that provide free services.  

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