Ever since I was a young girl I wanted to be a professional violinist. It was during my teenage years that practicing my instrument turned from a mandatory one hour daily discipline to constant day and night obsession. I was fortunate to have found my calling at such an early point for me, as it were to become my livelihood that took me through college and ultimately to my dream career as a successful musician. Around my 40th birthday, I had not only established myself as a prestigious member of my city’s orchestra but had also started noticing the painful buildup of arthritis in my wrist and hands. My attempts at playing through it only aggravated the condition and I sought help from my doctor after the pain became incessant and unbearable. He prescribed me the painkiller Vicodin, with seemingly endless refills of it at my disposal and no warning about developing a possible vicodin pain medication addiction. Finally for the first time in a year was I able to relax and continue with my music career almost pain-free.
In 4 years time, I was living at my mother’s home, surviving on my unemployment check, and existing in a desperate state of drug dependency. I had already sold most of my possessions, along with all of my violins, to support my Vicodin and painkiller addiction. At this abysmal point in my life, the only thing that mattered in my head was to feel absolutely nothing. The combination of chronic pain from my throbbing, aching hands and the passion of my life that I had been forced to give up sent me into a depression, leaving me with no desire to ever want to break free from my addiction. It was not until one day, when I walked into an intervention set up by my family and friends, that I was finally able to realize the nature of my situation, and begin to desire help for treating my host of problems.
At Behavioral Health of the Palm Beaches, I was educated about the new epidemic of pain medication addiction in America and how so many other people are in the same physical and chemical dilemma as me. Aside from treating my Vicodin addiction, their private counseling and talk therapy was the first time I was able to honestly express my traumatized emotions on such deep level. Their holistic pain remedies, such as flexibility training, massage and hypnosis to name a few, all combined to help me see that I do not have to live my life in pain without using prescription drugs. While I have now accepted the fact that I can’t return to my musical calling, my time at Behavioral Health also taught me about other skills and talents within me that I never even knew existed. I’d just like to say thank you again to everyone at BHOPB who helped me confront and conquer my problems head on and for giving me the willpower to start a new and optimistic life.
Valerie Q.
