Dr. John Duncan has stood at the front door of a house with a narcotics crew ready to bust in and he's stood at the front of a lecture hall teaching university students about addiction.
Yesterday, the assistant professor at the University of Oklahoma was at the forefront again, as a guest speaker brought in by the Perth County Task Force on Crystal Meth for the 2008 Methamphetamine Summit at the Rotary Complex.
An admitted adrenaline junkie, Dr. Duncan had a PhD under his belt before becoming a police officer. At one time he was of the opinion that drug addicts were bad people who made the wrong decisions. Then he began to look at it a different way.
"I learned to understand the minds of addicts," he said.
"Addiction and the Brain" was the focus of the educator's address to about 250 guests from numerous professions who come across addiction in one form or another.
Addiction, they heard, is an underlying hunger.
"It happens underwater," Mr. Duncan said in reference to an iceberg image in his PowerPoint presentation.
Addicts can't see how addicted they are to drugs -- just as the bulk of an iceberg can't be seen above water -- but they seek out drugs to satisfy a need.
Feeding addiction becomes second nature, like eating food to satisfy hunger or finding warmth and shelter to avoid the cold.
"When the reward is meth rather than a barbecue sandwich, we have a problem," he said.
The euphoria caused by meth use far exceeds sex, for instance, he said. The brain begins to tell a person they need more.
"Then you have a craving for something you don't need."
Counselling can help, but addiction is something that is never overcome, rather it is something one has to learn how to live with. Overcoming meth addiction requires a multi-pronged approach, Mr. Duncan said. Addiction treatment focuses on the permanent recalibration of the brain to avoid drug dependence.
Oftentimes, though, there is a pre-existing condition, usually depression, or an anxiety disorder, which is more of a psychiatric problem and probably led the person to seek out drugs in the first place. Psychiatry, unfortunately, is the most expensive and least available treatment option.
Meth users also run into problems with brain damage, which makes addiction recovery and psychiatric treatment all the more difficult, he said. "The danger is what you experience on the drug is more beautiful (than reality) but the reality is you don't realize what is happening to you over a period of time."
Chronic meth usage is clinically undistinguishable from paranoid schizophrenia, he said. "If you do meth for very long, you will get more paranoid and less cognitively able to deal with your life. You will have more problems in your life and eventually you will be completely disabled."
