NEWS: The Advertiser - 02/07/09 'There's a difference between junkie and eccentric'

There's a difference between junkie and eccentric.
Article from: The Advertiser
By AMBER PETTY
July 02, 2009 12:00am

PEOPLE keep saying that we need to learn the lesson from Michael Jackson's death. So what lesson is that? I believe the lesson is that the medical profession worldwide needs to be held accountable for the drugs they prescribe and dispense.

First, the drugs need to be the right ones for the right reasons. Second, doctors need to address the subsequent abuse of these drugs by their patients.

Just as a pub will be fined or shut down if something tragic happens to a patron who they "over-sell" alcohol to, so too doctors and pharmacists need to be held accountable. They should be required, like pubs, to notice there is a problem and nip it in the bud.

Two years ago I had to admit my mother into rehab after I realised she had become addicted to Stilnox over a seven-year period.

Now ask a doctor or chemist and they will probably tell you that this medication is not addictive. But what I know for certain is that it was my mother who had to spend a Christmas propped up in a rehabilitation centre for over a month, rather than celebrate that year with her family. I was visiting her in a place no one ever wants to see someone they love go. This is all the more so during the Christmas season. I cried every time I left.

Why did she end up on these drugs? She was prescribed them to help her sleep during the time my nana, her mother, was dying in hospital, something which went on for weeks.

She was unable to sleep during this traumatic time, as she was filled with grief and anxiety.

Why did she continue to take them? I think because, like many other people out there, she had some pain and sadness that had built up over the years, and these emotions became more intense after she saw her mum take her final breath.

It's a vicious circle because anxiety creates lack of sleep, and lack of sleep makes the pain more hard to deal with.

Over the course of the seven-year period I watched her turn into someone I didn't know any more, let alone someone who felt like a mum. She sadly lost a lot of dignity during this time, and became increasingly forgetful.

Rather than cringe with embarrassment and admit to a problem, she'd laugh it off and joke that her friends called her eccentric! I hate to be blunt but there's a difference between junkie and eccentric.

I refused to turn a blind eye to her behaviour and I refused to let her destroy her life. I demanded I go to doctors' appointments with her because I knew she was lying to me about how often she was getting her pills.

I wanted to know if the doctors she was seeing were aware or had bothered to realise that they were dealing with a manipulative addict.

I remember seeing Mum walk into her chemist one day so I waited 'til she left and headed in to ask the chemist a few questions.

"Was a lady called Beverley Harper just in here?" The man nodded.

"So tell me, would you say that Stilnox is addictive?"

"No, it's not," he insisted.

"So how do you explain my mother coming in here every couple of weeks for nearly seven years and needing hundreds of these 'non-addictive' pills?"

"I have no idea, madam," he said sheepishly.

Trying not to lose it and cry, I said: "I hope the drug company is paying you enough to make you sleep at night and still be able to look me in the eye and tell me this drug isn't addictive. I've nearly lost my mum! Have a good day."

I hope the lesson we take from Michael Jackson's death is that people in pain will always abuse themselves further.

Simply looking down on a person for taking so many drugs is not enough. These people are not of sound mind anymore. They are sick and the people who have the power to treat them need to handle them with a lot more care.

PILL POINTERS

* Marketing sleeping pills as non-addictive lulls people not only into sleep, but into thinking they're safe.
* The Government needs to put a centralised medical database in place so doctors are aware of the "actual" dosages patients are receiving - that is, what other practitioners are also prescribing them.
* There is nothing funny or eccentric about seriously odd behaviour and slurred speech. These people, like Michael Jackson, need our help - not our hilarity.
* If you suspect someone is over-medicating, remember that just asking them will probably not be enough. They might lie about it, as drug addicts do, but don't give up if you love them.

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