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Outpatient Rehab In Santa Clarita Opens Up Discussion About Overdoses: ‘It’s Not Just Opiates’

An outpatient rehab in Santa Clarita is opening up a discussion about drug overdoses, drawing attention to the fact that many people incorrectly assume overdoses only happen with opiates.


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“When we think of overdoses, we oftentimes think of opiates, for good reason,” said Bob Sharits, program director at The Way Out Recovery SCV. “Most of the overdose deaths that take place are as a result of some sort of an opiate or a pain killer… But overdoses occur not just with opiates. When we talk about overdoses, it’s not just opiates — there are others.” 

Melissa Flowers, a counselor at The Way Out Recovery SCV who was formerly addicted to cocaine, recalled how she used to associate overdoses not even with opiates, but with needles.

Related: Outpatient Rehab In Santa Clarita Cautions Active Addicts About Changes In Available Drugs During Pandemic

“I thought I was safe as long as I didn’t shoot anything or use intravenously,” she said, adding that this was one of the ways in which she justified her drug use to herself. 

What changed Flowers’ perception was when she suffered what she called a “mini stroke” one day while smoking cocaine, causing one side of her body to go completely numb and landing her in the hospital. 

“I didn’t want them to know I was under the influence, which is funny now because I’m sure they knew I was under the influence, but I left. I left like that,” Flowers said. “And I went back and I finished doing the drugs I had in the middle of a mini stroke… Now I think back and I’m like, wow, how intense is the drug that in the middle of a stroke or a mini stroke or a mild stroke that I continued to use?”

Sharits said that he overdosed twice in one year when he was an active drug user: once from methamphetamines and once from ketamine, both of which he said “killed” him.

“Neither time I went to the hospital, but what was interesting about it was, for some reason, I woke up the next day,” he said. “Both of them killed me, and I came out of that, and I don’t know how or why.”

The methamphetamine overdose stemmed from Sharits’ decision to “eat a bunch of it” because he was “tripping” and thought he was being chased by the cops. 

“So I took the whole thing and I ate it, and it broke open inside of me and flooded my system with more than a person can ever do,” Sharits said. “It’s a stimulant, so I thought I would get more, more, more energy. I thought, ‘Oh my God, I’m going to explode. My heart is going to explode or something.’ (But) the exact opposite happened to me. I started to get that, and then I got super tired and then I passed out.”

People do have heart attacks and strokes from overdosing on methamphetamine, and can also start to “slowly lose their minds” in what Sharits referred to as a “sustained overdose,” which often leads to diagnoses of schizophrenia even after the drug use stops, according to Sharits. 

Flowers added that she often cautions people entering recovery about the potential of overdosing if a relapse takes place.

“It is more probable that if you’ve had some time sober and you go out trying to use the same way you came in using, a lot of overdoses happen that way,” she said. “Because your body and your mind don’t match. Your mind is telling you, oh, go buy that 80 you were buying before you went in, and your body’s been sober for awhile so it can’t handle the amount that it used to in that moment, and so a lot of people that die, they’ve been sober for a minute.”

This doesn’t necessarily mean that they were in a recovery program, but just that they have had “some time off of the drug, and they go back,” Flowers said. 

She continued, “You have to be cautious of that. If you’ve had some time sober and you’re going out — I mean, obviously I’m not encouraging that — but don’t go using the same thing you used to do. Don’t do that. You might not make it.” 

Sharits encouraged anyone struggling with substance use to reach out to The Way Out Recovery SCV for help by calling 661-296-4444.

Ed. Note: This article is a KHTS Community Spotlight for The Way Out Recovery Outpatient Rehab in Santa Clarita.

In Santa Clarita, drug issues are a major concern for many. The mission of The Way Out Recovery Outpatient Rehab in Santa Clarita is to provide high quality, effective alcohol and drug rehab outpatient services to the Santa Clarita Valley. The Santa Clarita rehab’s goal is to assist adolescents, adults and their loved ones in becoming happily and usefully whole, free from drug addiction. Those seeking alcohol and drug treatment in Santa Clarita, a drug rehab in Santa Clarita, a teen drug rehab or simply a “rehab near me” can rest assured that The Way Out Recovery SCV’s philosophy is to teach life-long coping skills and strategies to assist in improving quality of life and living happily and meaningfully without the need of destructive behaviors.

28118 Bouquet Canyon Road
Santa Clarita, CA 91350

(661) 296-4444

The Way Out Recovery SCV – Santa Clarita

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZ4185GeEy4

The Way Out Recovery SCV, Drug Rehab in Santa Clarita, Alcohol and Drug Treatment in Santa Clarita, Santa Clarita Drug Issues, Teen Drug Rehab, Santa Clarita Rehab, Outpatient Rehab in Santa Clarita, Rehab in Santa Clarita, Rehab Near Me

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Outpatient Rehab In Santa Clarita Opens Up Discussion About Overdoses: ‘It’s Not Just Opiates’

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