WEBVTT

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Welcome to Spotlight. I'm Alice Sirasari
and I'm Colin Lalva. Spotlight uses a

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special English method of broadcasting. It
is easier for people to understand no matter

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where in the world they live.
Every day, Larry Harrison gets into a

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white fan that will take him to
the Potomac Street Health Clinic. There,

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doctors give him a small cup of
rose colored liquid. Drinking this liquid is

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the most important part of Harrison's day. In it is a substance called methadone,

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a drug that helps manage pain,
but methadone also helps people who are

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addicted to opioids like heroin and fentanyl. For more than ten years used heroine.

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Heroin, a powerful painkiller, also
causes intense feelings of pleasure. He

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could not stop taking it, and
he used too much. His addiction ruined

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his life. It cost him his
family, his friends, and his health.

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Harrison's path toward recovery has been a
long one. He has not taken

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heroine in two years, but he
still longs for it, and his story

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is common. Fighting addiction is a
struggle. It can take many years and

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much help. Some people never fully
recover. The good news, though,

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is that recovery is possible. Today's
spotlight is on the science of addiction,

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but it is also on how people
can recover. Addiction, also called substance

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use disorder, is a disease of
the mind and body. It is when

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a person depends too much on something, either physically or mentally. If people

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are addicted to something, it feels
like they cannot live without it, and

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it is very difficult to persuade them
otherwise. Larry Harrison is a good example

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of addiction. When Harrison first started
taking heroine, it was to help with

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his pain, but as time went
on, he felt like he needed it.

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He was no longer trying to reduce
pain. He felt like he needed

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the heroine to survive. He did
not care how he got it or where

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it came from. Before being addicted, he had a wife, two children,

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and a good life, but his
addiction stopped him from thinking clearly about

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these things. His family life fell
apart, he became homeless, and he

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spent most of his days searching for
more heroin. It did not seem like

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there was anything else he could do. Doctor Tyler Cole is a doctor with

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the Colorado University Hospital. He treats
people like Harrison. He spoke to University

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of Colorado Health about what drugs like
heroine do to the brain. Your brain

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just becomes a slave to the drug. You cannot break free. It does

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not matter if you have children,
It does not matter if you have willpower

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like iron. You cannot do it
on your own. You need a whole

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team. Heroin was unhealthy for Harrison. It changed how his mind understood the

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world, but addiction with many other
related health issues. For Harrison, there

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was the fear of overdosing, or
taking more heroine than his body could manage.

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It is easy to die from heroin
overdose if it is not treated correctly.

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The drug can cause a person's heart
to slow so much that their blood

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stops flowing. But there are many
other health related issues with heroine. Many

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heroin users inject the drug but do
not use clean needles. This leads to

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infection and serious diseases like HIV.
According to the World Health Organization, eighty

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percent of drug related deaths are from
drugs like heroin. That amounts to more

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than four hundred and eighty thousand deaths
each year. Still, people like Harrison

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continue to risk their lives for drugs. Sometimes this is because drugs are pleasurable,

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but more often it is because they
change how the brain works. Addictive

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drugs can replace chemicals in a person's
brain. These take the place of something

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the brain is already doing. When
a person becomes addicted, the brain stops

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producing these chemicals, so the person
needs the drug to feel normal. Being

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without a drug a person is addicted
to can also cause sickness. This sickness

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is called withdrawal. Withdrawal signs are
different depending on the drug, but these

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can be very serious. These can
be painful, terrifying, and in some

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cases, can lead to death.
Christy Huff is a doctor who became addicted

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to the drug xanax. She did
not take it because she liked the drug.

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She took it to help recover from
a surgery, but her body became

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dependent on the drug very quickly.
She tried to stop taking it on her

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own, but her withdrawal was very
difficult. In twenty seventeen, she wrote

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about her experiences on the website Benzo
Diazepine Information Coalition. I have developed new

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and worsening feelings. I often awake
early in the morning with my heart beating

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hard. I shake all over with
pure terror. Sometimes it is so bad.

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I shout for God to help me, but there is only silence.

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Some days I'm too weak to do
much more than lye in bed. Doctor

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Hoff took years to fully recover from
her addiction. Her withdrawal made it impossible

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for her to work. Often she
was too tired to care for her children.

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Each week, she would try to
take less and less of her medication,

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but even the smallest changes would make
her very sick. To recover from

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addiction, people must recognize their addiction
is harmful, but they must also make

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it through withdrawal. Even then,
addiction is not fully over. Many addicts

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still want their drug even if they
do not need it anymore. This desire

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never really goes away. This is
one reason doctors call addiction a disease.

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It damages the structure of the brain
to make an addicted person want more.

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If you are fighting an addiction,
you do not have to fight alone.

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Getting help is the most important part
of fighting addiction, from a doctor,

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a social worker, a religious leader, or even an addiction group. There

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are many resources to help. Doctors
can help you deal with the physical and

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mental effects of addiction, and counselors
and religious leaders can help you deal with

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the emotional and spiritual effects addiction.
Support groups can help you feel less alone.

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Fighting an addiction can feel hopeless,
but there is hope. Many people

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have successfully fought against their addictions.
This fight does not happen all at one

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time. Instead, it happens one
step at a time. Admitting the addiction

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is the first step. Getting help
is the next step, and every step

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brings you into a new and better
life. Have you ever dealt with addiction?

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How did you fight against it?
We want to hear your thoughts.

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You can leave a comment on our
website or on YouTube. You can also

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comment on Facebook at Facebook dot com
slash Spotlight Radio. The writer and producer

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of this program was Dan Christman.
The voices you heard were from the United

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States and the United Kingdom. All
quotes were adapted for this program and voiced

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by Spotlight. You can listen to
this program again and read it on the

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internet at www dot Spotlight English dot
com. This program is called Recovering from

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Addiction. We hope you can join
us again for the next Spotlight program. Goodbye,