Now she's just happy to be able to get out of bed in the morning. She lost her business, her energy and her dignity after developing an acute case of painkiller dependency following a back ailment.
After a six-year struggle trying to kick the addiction, Perry's life is almost normal again after she found help at an upstate drug-addiction clinic run by Dr. William Scott, an Easley-based physician and addictionologist.
Scott has opened a new clinic in the Okatie area of Jasper County, the first of its kind in this part of the state. The two-month-old clinic, Recovery Concepts, has attracted about 30 patients, ranging from age 18 to 66 and representing diverse backgrounds.
"And that's just scratching the surface," Scott said. "I have no doubt that there are hundreds if not thousands more out there in this area who have similar problems."
The center aims to help patients treat and control dependency on opioids, a class of pain relievers that include illicit drugs like heroin and opium and prescription drugs like OxyContin, codeine, Vicodin and morphine. Such commonly prescribed painkillers, used for a variety of ailments including pulled teeth, aching backs and surgical wounds, can be deadly for those who grow dependent on them.
Patients receive mandatory counseling at least once a month at the clinic and are put on a drug-maintenance program, which includes one of two drugs used to treat opioid addiction.
Methadone, also an opiate, is taken orally and suppresses narcotic withdrawal for between 24 and 36 hours. Because the methadone doses are highly controlled and supervised, it's viewed as an effective treatment to help addicts.
Buprenorphine, also called "the stopper," is emerging as the preferential treatment for opioid withdrawal, though it's more expensive. The drug is nearly impossible to abuse; if too much of it is ingested, it exacerbates withdrawal symptoms.
"It's a miracle drug," Scott said. "It's the most effective therapy I've seen when it comes to treating a disease. It will change the face of opiate-dependency treatment."
With either drug, help doesn't come at a low cost. Many insurance companies don't cover chemical dependency, and many patients don't want their employer or insurance company to know. In most cases, patients pay between $255 and $750 a month for the treatments, which could last a couple of months or for the rest of their lives.
"For some addicts, this qualifies as 'cheap,'" he said. "And that's just to maintain. These people aren't spending this money to get high anymore. They're buying drugs just to help them function."
At the height of her 20-pill-a-day addiction, Perry was spending up to $250 a day on the street for the drugs, which took massive swipes from her savings and bank accounts.
She was driving to "shady parts of town, to old broken-down trailer (homes)" to illegally obtain enough pills to feed her growing tolerance to the drug.
"What's pathetic is that most doctors don't understand the addiction," Perry said. "I'm just a normal person, like millions of others, who got hooked on narcotics. I've created in myself an opium deficiency."
Most prescription drug addicts are able to go through the motions of daily living: showering, changing clothes, brushing teeth -- and even going to work. But as the dependency grows and drugs begin to take a more central role in their lives, some of those tasks fall by the wayside.
Clinics like Scott's are growing in popularity, but the outlook for drug dependence remains rather bleak. Scott estimates that only one in five people will fully recover from an opiate addiction.
"It's a lot like diabetes," he said. "You don't fix it; you just try your best to control it." Contact Peter Frost at 706-8169 or . To comment: islandpacket.com .
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