美国国家公共电台 NPR After Drug Treatment, Men In Recovery Work To Live A 'Normal Life'

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

This year, the opioid crisis has continued to plague communities across the country. Several states have recently declared opioid emergencies, and President Trump 1 has labeled the crisis a national public health emergency. That drew attention to the issue, but it didn't come with any new funding. Earlier this year as part of our Kitchen Table series, we met three men who were near the end of their residential 3 treatment program. One of them was Terry Lilly, who was recovering from a heroin 4 addiction 5. Here's how he described his addiction at that point.

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TERRY LILLY: It scratched my itch 2. To helped me deal with the emotional problems that I wasn't dealing 6 with. So it didn't take long for me to give away my career, my house, my car, things like that.

SIEGEL: NPR's Sarah McCammon went back to Huntington, W. Va., to check in on Lilly and the two others.

SARAH MCCAMMON, BYLINE 7: When I met Jarrod Book, Aaron Pardue and Terry Lilly earlier this year, they were getting ready to begin navigating 8 normal life in Huntington, W. Va. The state has led the nation in deaths related to abuse of opioids like heroin and prescription 9 drugs. Standing 10 outside his apartment in a quiet neighborhood, Terry Lilly says life on his own is good but challenging. At 38, he's trying to rebuild his life.

LILLY: I'm starting from scratch in a lot of different areas, and it's overwhelming.

MCCAMMON: One of the hardest parts of being in recovery, Lilly says, is that he remembers what it's like to hustle 11 up, get 20 or 30 bucks 12 together and buy enough heroin to forget about his problems for a few hours.

LILLY: Now you put in the grind. You go to work. And you know, you may work hard. And then you pay rent and your utility bills, and you don't really have much leftover 13 for, you know, fun or frivolity 14 or whatever. So like I said, the payoff is - it's different.

MCCAMMON: Across town, Jarrod Book lives with his roommates and their pet python.

JARROD BOOK: His name's Lord Farquaad after the villain 15 from the "Shrek" movie.

MCCAMMON: Book is 25 and working as a case manager for a drug treatment facility just across the border in Ohio. Because his substance abuse started even before he was in high school, Book says he's now learning how to do normal adult stuff for the first time, things like paying bills.

BOOK: It was always whatever money I had went to fuel my addiction. And so now, like, learning how to budget and stuff has been hard. But, like, it's getting better I guess.

MCCAMMON: Book says he gets a lot of support from his roommates, who are also in recovery, and his family. He says that's helped him stay clean since graduating from the residential treatment program called Recovery Point. Another graduate, Aaron Pardue, is also working full-time 16 in the addiction treatment field as a recovery coach for people on probation 17 and parole. His office is at a homeless drop-in center in Huntington. Pardue says he's grateful he found full-time work despite his history of drug abuse and jail time. Some of his clients aren't so lucky.

AARON PARDUE: It's the hardest thing in the world to see somebody get sober turn their complete life around and then come back out here just to a society where they can't get a job. Some of them can't even get jobs at McDonald's. I mean, how many years do you have to pay for something that you've committed in the past?

MCCAMMON: And then there are those who come in needing treatment, but there's nowhere to send them.

PARDUE: You see it in their eyes. They're completely broken down. They're crying, and you can't make it happen because there's no beds. There's no place to send them. And you have to send them back out that door. And once they go through that door, you don't know if they're going to be back.

MCCAMMON: Pardue says states like West Virginia need more funding for treatment. All three of the men in recovery say they're glad President Trump and other leaders have focused attention on the opioid epidemic 18, but they want more action. Back at his apartment, Terry Lilly says he heard about Trump's declaration of an opioid emergency, but he's still waiting to see change.

LILLY: I think it's great as far as a soundbite and a, you know - if he wants to say that that's something that he has accomplished 19 or put that in his resume or whatever. That's great. But I personally am not aware of what that has translated to.

MCCAMMON: Lilly and the others say they're thinking less about what's happening in Washington these days than about getting up each morning here in Huntington and staying clean. Sarah McCammon, NPR News, Huntington, W. Va.