Pubdate: Fri, 26 Sep 2003
Source: Huntsville Times (AL)
Copyright: 2003 The Huntsville Times
Contact:  http://www.htimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/730
Author: Lee Roop
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

RECOVERING METH ADDICT HAPPY TO FIND 'NORMAL' AGAIN

You think you're different. It won't happen to you." That's Crystal, a
23-year-old recovering methamphetamine addict, talking about the fast trip down
and the long climb out.

It's national Recovery Month, and Crystal is 16 months off the needle. That's a
clean run that may make her one of the six addicts in a hundred to kick
America's newest chemical nightmare.

Six out of 100. Those are the odds against prolonged recovery, I'm told. Six
percent will quit. Ninety-four percent will eventually lose their money, jobs,
homes, health, families or freedom because of methamphetamine.

It sounds like an exaggeration, like the old "Reefer Madness" scare that
backfired and help turn a generation on to marijuana. But get anywhere near
meth, and you'll meet people who've lost all that and more. Crystal did things
to get it that would give a father nightmares.

So, why would anyone start? Why snort the first line?

Go back to Sentence One and get it straight. It isn't your lousy childhood. It
isn't your ghetto life. It isn't your bad companions.

It's a belief people share from Hampton Cove to East Limestone - a belief that,
somehow, I'm different. I can play in traffic and never get hit.

Someone tells me meth can kick this boring life into warp drive. It can make me
feel a low electric current sending a steady flow of ummm all through my body.

But it's a package deal. Feel the ummm and soon it takes a pile of meth just to
get out the door.

In a way, Crystal was lucky. She's talking in the offices of Pathfinder, the
in-patient rehab center in west Huntsville. Without Pathfinder, she's sure
she'd be in jail. Or dead.

Just talking like this is something new. Like the movies she now enjoys,
visiting is something Crystal couldn't do for years. When you're on meth, you
can't sit still long enough to visit, or watch a movie. You can't stand it.

Crystal's small North Alabama hometown is flooded with the drug. That's why she
likes it here.

"Here, I don't know anybody doing stuff," she said. "There, I don't know
anybody not doing stuff. I can be around people just living here. I don't need
to be there. I need to be here."

Crystal spends her time fixing up her new apartment, going to work, getting her
hair done, hanging out and going to the movies. She's thinking a lot about her
spiritual path, too. It's a life so normal some people might find it boring.

But like a modern Zen master, Crystal knows something we all should know. Each
moment of "normal" can be special, too. You just have to be able to see it.

Thanks, Pathfinder. And welcome to Huntsville, Crystal. It's not perfect, but
there is real life going on here. You're going to fit in fine.
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MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk