Man Has Life Back After Overcoming Opioid Addiction

70,467.

That’s the number of Americans who died of a drug overdose in 2017, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.

Terry Keith feels fortunate that the number wasn’t 70,468.

“I overdosed five or six times (before) I decided to get clean,” explained Terry, age 44, who will celebrate two years of sobriety in December. “Finally, I grew up and realized that it wasn’t normal to be preoccupied with drinking and using drugs constantly. It wasn’t normal to be overdosing

.”

Terry gives much of the credit for his recovery to the staff at Cleveland Clinic’s Alcohol and Drug Recovery Center (ADRC), which is based at Lutheran Hospital. Their ability to carefully evaluate his addiction, and customize and innovative treatment plan for him based on a combination of 12-step recovery work, professional group therapy and evidence-based medical treatment enabled him to succeed when previous attempts failed.

“I listened to the people. They told me what to do and provided faith and hope,” noted Terry, who works in the restaurant industry. “I put my life in their hands and everything worked out.”

RELATED: Listen to Terry’s story on the Cleveland Clinic podcast “The Comeback”

Rudy Kump, clinical manager for the ADRC outpatient unit, sees Terry’s success slightly differently. “We’re trying to change what is, sometimes, a lifetime of addictive thinking,” he said. “We can outline (treatment) offerings and give our recommendations. But it’s up to people like Terry to decide, ‘Yeah, we’ll do this.’”

Terry took his first drink of alcohol at age 18, and rarely stopped drinking or using a wide array of progressively more dangerous and addictive drugs during the ensuing two and a half decades. Heroin. Cocaine. Ecstasy. “I tried pretty much anything I could get my hands on,” he said.

RELATED: Patient is Opioid-Free After Spending 20 Years Addicted to Pain Medications

By the time he moved on to fentanyl and carfentanyl – opioids used to manage major surgeries and sedate large animals that are thousands of times more potent than heroin – Terry was on a deadly, downward spiral that showed little sign of abating. Along the way, he lost countless jobs, got divorced, spent time homeless and became estranged from many of his family members.

But it was his fear of losing a good job that finally prompted him to at last take seriously his desire to rid himself of his addiction. “I had found a good career, and that gave me the push to say, ‘Okay, this has got to change,’” Terry added. “I asked for help. That’s my advice for others. Just ask for help.”

David Streem, MD, medical director for ADRC, said the key to treating the 7,000 clinically-dependent patients who come to ADRC annually is to understand just how dangerous addiction can be: “Everyone is vulnerable, and everyone needs a safe, nurturing place to get high-quality addiction treatment. That’s something Rudy and I, and the rest of the staff, are extremely passionate about.”

According to Terry, the best advice he got throughout his recovery process came from Rudy, who told him that “meeting makers make it. It’s a very simple phrase, but to get traction in life, I got to keep going to meetings. Any 12-step meeting. They make me realize I’m not alone.”

But he is well aware that, ultimately, the decision to get sober – and stay sober – is all on him.

“I protected my drinking and my drugging like some people protect their loves ones or their pets or their savings,” he proclaimed. “It was just time to grow up (because) the world wasn’t getting my best.”