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NEWS RELEASE

PRIVATE TREATMENT HELPS A FORMER PRESCHOOL TEACHER OVERCOME HER ADDICTION TO PRESCRIPTION PAINKILLERS

By sharing her story, Dena Woods hopes to inspire others to seek treatment for their addictions as they start the New Year

LAS VEGAS, Nev., Dec. 31, 2007 ― When Dena Woods sought treatment for an accidental head injury, she never dreamed she would develop an addiction to the pain medication that her doctor prescribed.
“I kept telling myself, ‘I’m not an addict,’” Woods recalled. “I’m an educated person. I’m a teacher.’ ”
But the injury she sustained in a preschool classroom in Las Vegas four years ago left her with a seizure disorder, which forced her early retirement. Her doctor recommended Lorcet, a prescription painkiller, and as time went on, he increased her dosage to help sooth her pain.
What Woods didn’t realize at the time was that she wasn’t using the medication solely to treat her head injury, but also to assuage unresolved emotional pain involving the sudden death of her mother.
“I lost my mother in 2000. She became very ill. Her major organs were shutting down and I had to make a decision to take her off life support because there wasn’t anything that could be done for her. But I didn’t know how to deal with the grief,” Woods said.
Taking Lorcet, however, gave Woods a way to sooth the pain she was feeling inside. “I stayed numb and isolated myself from my own feelings and stayed in this heavily medicated state,” she said.
Woods’ husband, Freddie, and her daughter, Jennifer, worried about her, however, and persuaded her to seek professional treatment for her addiction. Woods found the help she needed by enrolling in a 28-day program offered by A Better Tomorrow, a Murrieta, Calif. drug and alcohol rehab center.
“They’ve really put me on a yellow brick road,” Woods said of A Better Tomorrow, adding that she wants to share her story with the hope of inspiring others to seek treatment for their addictions.
“I am so grateful for going there,” she said. “I feel like I’ve got myself back again.”
Jim Fent, program manager for A Better Tomorrow, said the Southern California clinic is seeing a growing number of patients with addictions to prescription painkillers, reflecting a nationwide trend. Across the U.S., retail purchases of the five major painkillers increased by 90 percent between 1997 and 2005, according to statistics compiled by the Drug Enforcement Administration. Doctors, however, have no way of knowing in advance which patients will be most likely to develop addictions to prescription painkillers, Fent said.
“The good news is that growing numbers of Americans are seeking treatment for these addictions,” Fent said. “The bad news is that most people fail to see prescription painkillers for what they really are – legal medicaitns that, in many cases, are just as addictive as the illegal drugs that dominate our headlines every day.”
Based in Murrieta, Calif., A Better Tomorrow has the highest level of accreditation that can be obtained by a drug or alcohol treatment center. The clinic is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF), placing it in the top 5 percent of drug and alcohol treatment clinics in California. For more information about A Better Tomorrow, please contact Jim Fent at (800) 757-9867. Additional information is available on the clinic’s website at http://www.abttc.com/.