Turning relapse into recovery Lima UMADAOP client is doing better the second time around
recalls a daily routine of taking three Percocets in the morning “to keep from getting sick”, eventually moving on to daily use of Tramadol, then morphine, and Xanax. With street drugs often less expensive and easier to obtain than prescription meds, Getz eventually progressed to using heroin and crack. Getting together with friends on weekends to drink away the stress became a regular habit, and soon her addiction made it impossible to hold a job for very long, she recalls. “ings got out of hand.” Getz' second son was born in 2009. After her third son was born in April 2013, Children's Services ocials stepped in and she lost custody of her kids. Getz was ordered into detox and then completed outpatient treatment at Lima UMADAOP. With the help of monthly Vivitrol shots, Getz managed to stay clean for two years, becoming a volunteer recovery coach at Canton UMADAOP in her hometown. Getz was doing well, but daily stresses and old thinking patterns led her to eventually relapse on heroin. “Because of addiction being a progressive illness, I picked up right where I left o,” she recalls. “I lost everything all over again – my kids, my apartment, and my husband, who was also an addict, went to jail.” After taking a drug test, Getz confessed to Danielle Snyder, her supervisor, that she had relapsed. Getz started receiving regular doses of suboxone to detox and stay o heroin. It took about six weeks to get the heroin out of her system, then Getz started on a monthly Vivitrol regimen, which has helped her get recovery back on track; she received her last shot of the medication in January, 2017 and is expecting her fourth child later this year. Relapse, then rededication
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n the recovery community, it's often said that relapse is part of the process of recovering from addiction. Amber Getz, a recent graduate of Lima UMADAOP's treatment program, learned that lesson rst hand. It's a lesson she applies every day to make sure recovery remains a permanent part of her life. Growing up in Hardin County, Amber Getz started drinking long before she was old enough to make sound decisions about alcohol; she recalls being given her rst taste of beer at the age of ve. She also started smoking cigarettes as a nine year old. An unhealthy habit Getz developed an unhealthy dependence on alcohol after the birth of her rst child in 2004. With the baby's father in prison, Getz worked full-time at a Procter and Gamble plant to support her family. After Getz underwent surgery related to the birth, a post-surgical prescription for Vicodin and then percocet led to addiction.
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“I lost everything all over again.” -Amber Getz, Lima UMADAOP client
After her prescription expired, other family members' painkiller prescriptions made it possible for Getz to keep taking them daily. Getz
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