← Harold's Old Time Radio![Medical File [SA] 73xxxx xxxx Broken Doll — Harold's Old Time Radio cover](https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/8011e358fc60d6821e45a9f44e2177d4.jpg)
Harold's Old Time Radio
Medical File [SA] 73xxxx xxxx Broken Doll
00:24:33
Medical File [SA] 73xxxx xxxx Broken Doll
Loading summary
Transcript56 lines
- [00:01]
Sarah
Hey, this is Sarah. Look, I'm standing out front of a.m. p.m. Right now and well, you're sweet and all, but I found something more fulfilling, even kind of cheesy. But I like it. Sure, you met some of my dietary needs, but they've just got it all. So Farewell. Oatmeal. So long, you strange soggy.
- [00:19]
AM PM Advertiser
Break up with bland breakfast and taste AM PM's bacon, egg and cheese biscuit made with K tree eggs, smoked bacon and melty cheese on a buttery biscuit. AM PM Too much. Good stuff.
- [00:35]
Narrator
This is a true story taken from an actual medical file.
- [00:45]
Medical Expert
A little while ago I attended a symposium on the problems contingent upon chemotherapy. That's the treatment of disease with chemicals, drugs. And not surprisingly, many of the speakers turned their attention to the problems of drug abuse. This was of particular interest to me because at the time I was trying to help a young friend of mine who was a drug addict. My story tonight is in reality her story. It's a story I've called Broken Dol.
- [01:32]
Narrator
Medical File. Factual stories of the men and women whose vigilance guards our lives. A reconstruction of clinical case histories step by step with the doctors who were there. Medical FILE.
- [02:07]
June
My name's June. I'm a drug addict. It's not an easy thing to say. It's no easy to explain. I suppose what it amounts to is it before you can say it, you realize that you can't live without something to live on. And then you come to see that you're not living at all. You might as well be dead. And if you're lucky, that's when you scream for help and someone hears you. I'm 20 and like a broken dollar. I don't think my parents ever really got on together. From as early as I can remember, they were always bickering at each other. Not big serious fights hitting each other or anything like that, just niggling. We were always together, the family evenings and weekends. And that my father never seemed to earn enough money. I think that was the trouble. He worked hard and he. He got his money. But there was never enough to go around. Not that we ever went without. But one Christmas, I remember my father bought me a guitar. I loved that. I loved him too.
- [03:32]
Medical Expert
What exactly is drug abuse? What do we mean when we bandy around words like addiction, habituation and dependence?
- [03:42]
Medical Specialist
In its strictest sense, the term drug abuse means the taking of medically useful drugs which are capable of altering mood and behaviour for non medical purposes. The term can also mean the use of the prescribed drug for purposes other than that for which it was prescribed. A barbiturate prescribed for insomnia is abused if it is taken to induce a sense of intoxication at a party.
- [04:08]
Medical Commentator
In a wider sense, drug abuse is taken to mean the use of any mood and behaviour changing substances that have no real medical use, except possibly in medical research.
- [04:18]
Medical Specialist
The World Health Organization, in an attempt to standardize nomenclature, has recommended that the words addiction and habituation should be abandoned in favour of drug dependence, which it defines as a state arising from repeated administration of a drug on a periodic or continuous basis. It has further attempted to clarify thinking by suggesting that the exact type of dependence be specified, I.e. morphine, cocaine, barbiturate, marijuana, amphetamine and so on.
- [04:58]
June
Things really came to a head in my first year at high school. It all seemed to get too much for my father. I didn't know he was in debt and they were serving summonses on him. He was worried. I could see that. He used to talk to me about it sometimes. Then one day he just didn't come home from work and nobody knew where he was and he hadn't said a word to anyone. He just sort of opted out. Things were pretty bad at home. People were nice. My mother went out to work and she managed to keep things going. She started drinking quite a bit when she was at home. There'd always been drink in the house before, but then it got pretty bad.
- [05:48]
Medical Expert
Let us move on now to take a look at the drugs that are open to abuse. Their nature, their legitimate medical use, where it exists, and the symptoms and end results of their abuse. And for ease of understanding, let's consider them under six group headings according to their nature rather than their chemical content. First of all, narcotics.
- [06:10]
Medical Analyst
Narcotics in the strictly scientific sense, and discounting any definition devised for purposes of law, enforcement or control, are drugs which produce insensibility as a result of their depressant effect on the central nervous system. These comprise opium, opium derivatives such as morphine, codeine and heroin, and synthetic opiates such as methadone.
- [06:35]
Medical Commentator
In the medical field, these narcotics are used to relieve or lessen severe pain such as might be experienced from serious injuries or burns or in certain prolonged disease conditions.
- [06:46]
Medical Specialist
Chronic abuse of narcotics will lead to both physical and psychological dependence, with the need for ever increasing doses arising as tolerance to the drug increases. If access to the drugs is impossible, severe withdrawal symptoms develop.
- [07:02]
Medical Analyst
Restlessness, fear, muscle spasms, severe bodily aches, intermittent rises and falls in temperature, vomiting and diarrhea, increased respiration rate and blood pressure, a desperate obsession with Securing another fix, even death.
- [07:20]
Medical Commentator
These withdrawal symptoms will usually manifest themselves once dependence has been established. Within 12 hours of the last dose, they will increase in intensity for the next three days and gradually diminish over the next eight or ten days, although they may continue for several weeks.
- [07:38]
Medical Specialist
The possibility of death also exists if the abuser takes a dose that contains an unusually high narcotic content, or if a contaminated hypodermic needle is used.
- [07:56]
June
My mother always used to say that she'd never meet anyone else. She was still attractive, but she did have three children, you know, and she was still in quite a lot of debt, but she used to go out quite a bit, parties and that. And then one day she did meet someone. He was younger than she was, pretty well off. Everybody said how lucky she was. And they got married and my mother's divorce was through by then. Then they went to the Seychelles for a honeymoon. We children went to stay with some friends, but when the honeymoon was over, my mother didn't come back. We didn't see her again for 18.
- [08:41]
Medical Expert
Now let's move on to the second of our drug classification headings and consider the depressants, although we'll confine ourselves to the barbiturates, because these are the most commonly encountered abuse drug.
- [08:53]
Medical Commentator
Barbiturates have many legitimate medical uses and like the opiates, they have a depressant effect upon the central nervous system. They're prescribed to counter serious anxiety states, high blood pressure, chronic sleeplessness or in the treatment of epilepsy. They're also used by psychiatrists in the field of mental health.
- [09:13]
Medical Specialist
To use the World Health Organisation phraseology, drug dependence of the barbiturate type will not arise if prescribed dosages are adhered to, but almost certainly will if excessive dosages are taken. The barbiturate abuser runs two grave but distinctly different dangers. In the first place, barbiturates are often taken with alcohol to increase intoxication, and this can be fatal even to those abusers who have not yet developed any sort of dependence. And secondly, there is a definite possibility of death being caused by barbiturate withdrawal.
- [09:48]
Medical Analyst
Withdrawal symptoms usually manifest themselves within 12 hours of the last dose. Severe nervous tension, muscle twitching, insomnia, nausea, fainting caused by sudden changes in blood pressure. These initial symptoms are followed by a climax which often induces dangerous, sometimes fatal convulsions and a period of mental confusion, delirium and hallucination.
- [10:25]
June
Months. These people we were staying with realized that my mother wasn't coming back. They didn't really want us. Why should they had enough problems of their own, so they went to the social welfare people. We were put into a home. Hated that. Most of the other kids there were orphans, but we had a mother and a father. Some of the kids there used to smoke just cigarettes and they would have killed us if they'd found out. We used to hide behind the lava trees just for the devilment of it. And then one day one of the boys got hold of some dhaka. He didn't want to smoke it himself. He was just showing off, I suppose. But they started daring, double daring. I tried it. I suppose that was really when it started.
- [11:23]
Medical Expert
Narcotics depressants now, let's consider what are loosely referred to as tranquilizers in the broadest sense of the word. These are drugs that are capable of sedating or calming without inducing sleep. And unlike barbiturates, they can reduce tension or anxiety without impairing mental or physical alertness.
- [11:44]
Medical Analyst
The abuse of tranquilizers has been described by more than one writer on the subject as a middle class phenomenon. It's not as widespread, for example, as the abuse of barbiturates, although chronic abuse can result in similar physical and psychological dependence.
- [12:09]
June
At first, I suppose I enjoyed the kick I got from doing something wrong more than I enjoyed the actual sensation of using a pot. The other kids sort of looked up to me so well, you know, most of them were scared to try it themselves. The only thing was it make round trees, but it wasn't free. I knew where I could get it if I had money. But you don't find rich kids in orphanages. So that was when I started to steal. I used to get into town whenever I could. It was easy to get out, although we weren't supposed to. That was something that most of the other kids were afraid to do at first. I used to, you know, lift little things that I could sell cigarettes and sweets and little toys, sort of things I could carry easily in my clothes. I was high most of the time.
- [13:10]
Medical Expert
From tranquilisers to stimulants, these are drugs which directly stimulate the central nervous system to cause increased alertness, wakefulness and general zest. Under this heading, we're mainly concerned with amphetamine and its related drugs such as methamphetamine or Ben's phetamine.
- [13:28]
Medical Commentator
Medically, amphetamine like drugs are used in the treatment of various mental disorders because of their mood changing properties.
- [13:36]
Medical Analyst
There's little evidence that abuse of these drugs will lead to a physical dependence or for that matter, in any serious physical damage.
- [13:42]
Medical Commentator
There is no doubt, though, that the amphetamines can produce a very serious psychological or emotional dependence with withdrawal symptoms of a grave psychic nature.
- [13:52]
Medical Analyst
Strictly speaking, cocaine should be considered under this heading of stimulants. When abused, it causes the same excitability, talkativeness and sense of euphoria. And again, although it does not produce any physical dependence, it can cause serious psychological depend.
- [14:16]
June
Somehow the police got onto me and they came to the home to ask a lot of questions. I was in trouble for the first time. Somehow they managed to find my father. He was living not far away all the time, but he came to fetch me. He said he'd look after me. They were happy just to let me go. I think they'd had enough of me. My father blamed the people at the home for letting me get into trouble. He said I was all right. It was good to be back with him. I always loved him.
- [14:57]
Medical Expert
And now we come to those substances that have little or no legitimate medical use, except possibly in the field of research under strictly controlled conditions. I refer to the hallucinogens.
- [15:09]
Medical Specialist
Lsd, dmt, stp, mescaline, psilocybin.
- [15:14]
Medical Analyst
Abusers may be deluded into thinking that they are immune to injury and get themselves killed in the process of crossing a street. They may believe that they can fly and throw themselves from the top of a building. They may deliberately kill themselves or commit a crime. Again, the physical properties of the drugs themselves may prove lethal.
- [15:32]
Medical Commentator
And while on the subject of hallucinogens, we must consider the drug about which more has been said and written than any other, the drug about which possibly less is really known than any other. Marijuana, Hashish, Dhaka.
- [15:48]
Medical Specialist
The mental effects of marijuana include a sense of euphoria, a distortion of the senses accompanied by a heightened flow of ideas. Laughter comes easily and hallucinations may develop with larger doses.
- [16:02]
Medical Commentator
There's also the danger of deterioration of normal intellectual and social functioning and partial or complete withdrawal from reality.
- [16:20]
June
It was super being back with my father. For a while I didn't smoke or anything, but after a while he began to realize that he'd taken a lot on. He had a life of his own. He wanted to lead. One night I asked a few of the kids from the school where I was to run to my place for a party. It wasn't going to be anything special. We had some wine and one of the boys brought some goofballs and I tried them. I was grooving. Really belt it. And after that there was a big thing. I was hitting them all the time. My father thought I was ill. He told Me, I should see a doctor and I said I would. Later on, he found the barbs I was on and I told him what the doctor had given me. He believed me. Then once when he was out, I was all alone. I really hit a lot of wine too. When he got home, I was in a bad way. That was the first time I ever tossed.
- [17:31]
Medical Expert
And now we come to the last of our six group headings and paradoxically enough, we turn to non drugs experienced in drug abuse circles. These are loosely known as the solvents, the fumes of which are inhaled to induce a feeling of euphoria, release intoxication.
- [17:49]
Medical Specialist
These are glue, lighter fuel, petrol or ether. And severe problems can result from the practice of sniffing these fumes. Apart from the obvious dangers of dizziness, stupor, nausea over intoxication and so on, there is a possibility of death from suffocation, the onset of psychotic behavior, anaemia, and damage to vital bodily organs such as liver, heart, the blood and the nervous system.
- [18:23]
June
When I came out of hospital, my mother was back on the scene again. My father had been on term while I was in. Her second marriage was finished and she had a flat down at the coast. They thought a change would do me good, so I went to live with her for a while. My mother was a bit of a hypochondriac, you know, she always thought she had something wrong with her. And she had a medicine cupboard in the bathroom. It was full of stuff. So one day, just for kicks, I took two or three from each bottle. I didn't know what half of them were or what they were for, but I took them. I was flying. That was my thing for a while. I used to just go into a pharmacy and buy things, anything that I could get without a prescription. And I used to mix them up and just hit. My mother found out on the end and she went into a rage. She said if I didn't stop, she'd have me put away again. I was even high when we had to ride. Just ran away, didn't care.
- [19:30]
Medical Expert
Let's turn our attention now to the abusers themselves.
- [19:33]
Medical Commentator
Initial experiences with drugs usually spring from a desire for kicks. Sporadic, irregular, experimental. They constitute a defiance of social norms, an adventurous stand against conventionality, a social activity. The real addict passes from this group after he's taken drugs for some time and has come to feel that he cannot live without them.
- [20:04]
June
I found somewhere to stay. It's probably a lot easier than you think, just to get off the scene. There was a whole crowd in one house. There were all sorts. There Some heavy, some not so much. I used to sleep a lot. It was nice knowing they were all there. But they didn't come into my life much. There was a boy there. Well, he couldn't have been more than 20. He was on acid, LSD. I didn't want anything to do with that. But I was back on barbs. I was happy. And yet, in a funny sort of way, I wish that somebody would come find me, look for me, tell me that I didn't belong and take me away. And when they didn't come, I thought it would be a good idea to kill myself. I deliberately took a massive overdose. One of the other kids there caught on and they got me to hospital. Maybe in a funny way they did sit care after all.
- [21:08]
Medical Specialist
These days.
- [21:08]
Medical Expert
Fortunately, the belief that drug addiction is incurable has been abandoned. It is now realized that there is a successful treatment program. There are four distinct steps or stages in this treatment.
- [21:20]
Medical Specialist
Stage one, initial detoxification. This is only properly accomplished under strict supervision in a hospital or specialist establishment.
- [21:30]
Medical Analyst
Stage two, psychiatric assessment and treatment. It must be established what psychological or emotional factors are predisposing the abuse of drugs.
- [21:39]
Medical Commentator
Stage three, medical aftercare. Once the abuser has been dried out, if one may borrow a term used in the treatment of alcoholism, there will be highly specialized pathological aspects that need careful supervision.
- [21:54]
Medical Analyst
Stage four, guidance and support. During the critical period of return to the community at large, environment, drugs, friends and pressures will not have changed as he or she will have changed. It's possible that several years could elapse before the word cure could be used with any certainty.
- [22:20]
Medical Expert
But it can be done. There is hope.
- [22:29]
June
I only had one bad experience after I came out of hospital again. Well, it was all a bad experience, really. See that? Now there was one turning point. I came out of the hospital and I was supposed to go to the social welfare people the next day. But I went back to my friends in the house. I thought I'd just stay on for a day or two until I got my ideas sorted out about where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do. But it was freaky. It was somehow as if I wanted to have one last taste, you know. And I had some wine. I don't know. I'd never taken acid before. NSD I knew that I wanted to stop. I thought I'd go out with a ban. And I nearly did. It was bad. Oh, I was scared. Oh, so scared. I could have turned off without it, but it was too late. I shouted, help. Oh, I thought I did. I probably didn't make a sound. Somebody must have heard me. Somebody must have known what I was wanting to say. They thought I was dead. They could help. Anyway, my name's June. I'm a drug addict. It's not an easy thing to say. It's no easier to explain. I suppose what it amounts to is that before you can say it, you realize that you can't live without something to live on. And then you come to see that you're not living at all and you might as well be dead. And that's when you scream for help. I was lucky. Somebody heard me.
- [24:35]
Medical Expert
And that is more or less where tonight's story started.
- [24:45]
Narrator
MEDICAL file, the documented story of the men and women who, in hospitals, research centers and lonely surgeries, guard our lives. Listen again next week for another true story from Medical File.