Local man comes clean about drug addiction
When Michael Sutton recalls the last year of his life, the 20-year-old recovering drug addict can’t help but repress a hard-earned smile. But the young man, his hair cropped close and his silver lip ring glinting, grows more somber when he describes the troubled years prior to 2005 and the daily struggle to beat drug addiction.
“I was messed up pretty much every day, man,” Sutton said. “All I did was drugs. I was in a bad place, and then last summer, I hit rock bottom.”
According to Sutton, he was arrested for fighting at a local gas station and was charged in the incident.
He was charged with aggravated assault, simple assault and cited for harassment. He began his Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition (ARD) through the Fayette County Court system last month.
“I couldn’t keep a job and all I thought about were drugs everyday,” Sutton said.
When he was 13 years old, Sutton first experimented with alcohol, he said, quickly developing a taste for beer.
The Fairchance resident then moved on to marijuana at 15 and into hardcore drugs such as cocaine, painkillers and Oxycontin at 16.
Sutton said that over the next three years, he was high and strung out nearly everyday, losing jobs and resorting to stealing to support his habit.
Sutton smiles wryly when he announces he has been clean for one year and one week, something he is proud of.
With his girlfriend, Brandie Nicholson, at home, and a son, Jay Scott, who will be 2 years old in September, Sutton said he realized that his addiction was bigger than just himself.
“She has always been very supportive,” Sutton said. “She and my dad and my family.”
Now, he is actively involved in anti-drug campaigns in the community as he continues to turn his own life around.
As part of his recovery, he is mandated to attend two rehab sessions with Narcotics Anonymous each week as part of his recovery program.
Sutton said he usually attends three.
“It just helps a lot, so I try to go as much as I can,” Sutton said. “They teach you how to deal with it and how to fight the urges and the withdrawals. Now, I am volunteering with the Fayette County Drug and Alcohol (Commission). I talk to kids about the dangers of drugs.”
Sutton said he “doses” three times a week at the methadone clinic in an attempt to balance the slow and arduous process of weaning his body from the drugs that ruled his life for the better part of his high school days.
“I take 40 milligram tablets, and it helps me to maintain stability. I am getting real close to beginning a smaller dose and weaning further.”
Sutton recently hit another wall of sorts, one that he said many addicts face during the road to recovery.
He said his employer at the time discovered he was not able to work certain evenings each week because he was attending Narcotics Anonymous meetings.
Sutton said when he questioned his boss about his subsequent dismissal, the meetings were cited as the reason for him being fired.
“They don’t understand what it is like to be an addict,” Sutton said. “It is like a sickness. It is like a cold.”
Addicts face uphill battle
Roz Sugarmann, director of Addiction Specialists Inc. (ASI) in Uniontown, said all addicts face an uphill battle, but addicts like Sutton, who are working through a methadone treatment system, have additional barriers to overcome.
“One of the biggest struggles is with society and their ignorance of methadone treatments,” Sugarmann said. “We are very adamant about what we offer and about what we give our patients. Methadone is just a very small part of it and we struggle to open programs because of the ignorance. Kids are dying all over the place, but when people hear methadone, they shut the door immediately.”
According to Sugarmann, who has been a recovering addict for 23 years, methadone can be successful in two ways.
In some cases, like Sutton’s, methadone can be used to wean the patients off the opiates. In others, a patient may maintain themselves on methadone for their entire life, with the goal of becoming a productive citizen.
“Methadone is a medication. It is not a drug. It is not something that makes them high. They are no longer stealing. They are no longer using illicit drugs. They are maintaining,” Sugarmann said.
Sugarmann said patients at ASI are tested on a regular basis for drug and or alcohol use and are not allowed to use either and stay in the program.
Sugarmann said in cases like Sutton, the clinic advises patients not to tell potential employers about their past because of the stigma that drug addiction carries.
“You don’t go into a job interview and tell them that ‘I want you to know that I had a nervous breakdown last year and I am on medication now.’ Why would you tell them about your prior battles with addiction?” Sugarmann said. “We tell them not to tell them. It is sad.”
While he beats the pavement looking for work to support his family, Sutton said he stays busy working as a mechanic with his family and running his own weekend car detailing shop, a part-time hobby he hopes one day will be his only occupation.
“I’m just trying to make a living and it is hard with a kid,” Sutton said. “People do change. That’s what everyone needs to realize. People need to give people a chance. I am going out on a limb but I need to take a stand. Everyone gets criticized in this society. You are too fat. You are too ugly. You are too skinny. You are too dumb. But it is not such a bad thing to be a recovering addict. Everyone has their issues. But the thing is, people do change.”