Ep 233: The Opioid Crisis: What Parents Need to Know

Holly Geyer, author of Ending the Crisis: Mayo Clinic’s Guide to
Opioid Addiction and Safe Opioid Use, joins us to shine light on
the ways the opioid crisis might affect our teens. We discuss the
effects of opioids on the body, how we can detect if teens are
using them, and what we can say to teens who might be at risk for
opioid addiction.


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Full show notes


Many of us picture drug addiction as a vague threat, something
that might be a possibility for an unhoused person or party
animal but never for our own kids. When we hear concerns about
the opioid crisis, we might wave it off as a problem that most
likely could never affect us. We typically think that even if
kids party a little,–say, experiment with marijuana or
alcohol-that they’ll probably come out on the other end just
fine.





But what we don’t realize is just how susceptible our kids are to
opioid use. Nowadays, traces of opioids are found in marijuana,
cocaine, or even candy. They’re in millions of medicine cabinets,
available on the streets in alarming quantities, and have been
prescribed to nearly a third of adults in the United States. If
we want our kids to stay safe from the opioid crisis, it’s time
to educate ourselves–and our kids.





To help us wrap our heads around the severity of this crisis,
we’re talking to Holly Geyer, author of Ending the Crisis: Mayo
Clinic’s Guide to Opioid Addiction and Safe Opioid Use. Holly is
an addiction medicine specialist at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix,
Arizona, where she leads the Arizona Opioid Stewardship Program.
She’s served on several Arizona department of health
subcommittees, works with a number of organizations to raise
opioid awareness, and lectures nationally on opioid addiction and
safe opioid prescribing.





In our interview, we’re explaining what opioids are and how they
affect the human body. We also discuss how we can look for signs
of opioid abuse in our kids, and what we can say to kids who
might be at risk of an opioid addiction.



What Parents Need to Know About
Opioids


As an opioid expert, Holly is often asked: what’s the difference
between opioids and opiates? In the episode, she explains that
opiates are derived from the poppy plant, while opioids are
synthetically created to mimic the effects of opiates. To the
average person, the terminologies are basically interchangeable,
she explains. It is important to remember, however, that opioids
are often created in illicit environments, meaning that they’re
usually not regulated and could be a lot more dangerous than
opiates, Holly says.





These “painkillers” cause a sense of euphoria and often make us
feel as though our troubles are slipping away–until they stop
working and our body begins to crave more and more. As our usage
grows, so does our tolerance, explains Holly. If taken exactly as
prescribed, we might be relatively safe from the serious threat
of addiction, but if we crush and snort it, inject it or take
more than we’re supposed to, the results can be deadly. In fact,
opioids are now the leading cause of death for people under 45.





How can taking opiods be fatal? Overdose, explains Holly.
Overdose occurs when an individual consumes so much of an opioid
that they become overly sedated, to the point where they forget
to breathe, she says. If you suspect someone is taking opiods and
they seem sleepy, cold or unintelligible in their speech, they
might be overdosing. In the episode, Holly and I lay out a number
of actions we can take if we’re presented with an overdosing
individual–including an immediate dial of 911 and a dose of
naloxone.





It’s pretty clear that opioid addiction is not something we’d
want to encounter, especially in our own families. But how can we
actively work towards preventing these tragic outcomes? Holly
explains in the episode.



How To Tell If Your Teen is At Risk


Teen opioid addiction is no joke. Rates of teen opioid use are
skyrocketing, Holly explains. If your teen starts using young,
has a history of meddling with other substances, deals with
mental health issues or experiences chronic pain, the risk is
even higher. Even if you’ve never brought prescription opioids
into the house, kids are often exposed when trying a different
drug that happens to be laced. So how can we look out for signs
that teens are using opioids before it’s too late?





Holly explains that teens who are using opioids might typically
start to become a bit more withdrawn. They may start to appear
less engaged in school or other daily activities, and then they
may start stealing or disappearing for long periods of time, says
Holly. That’s when parents may find drug paraphernalia hidden in
their sock drawer. Another indicator is the kind of company they
keep; if they seem to be hanging around a sketchier crowd, she
recommends watching their behavior even more closely.





If you’ve got extra opioids lying around in your cabinet that
you’re storing for safe-keeping, Holly explains that it’s time to
get rid of them. Maybe they were prescribed for a surgery or an
injury and there’s plenty left over that you're keeping for a
rainy day–but they’ve got to go, she explains. Many times, teens
start with these easily available pills and move on to harder or
less regulated versions. In our interview, we talk about all the
ways these pills can be safely destroyed or removed from your
home.





One of the main ways we can prevent opioid addiction in our kids
is by communication and education. In the episode, Holly lays out
how we can talk to teens before, during, or after discovering an
opioid use.



Preventing Opioid Addiction


If we want our kids to steer clear of drug use, the first step is
changing the overarching culture and attitude in our homes. If
we’re practicing a “take pills to solve your problems” mentality
around the house whenever something is in pain or not working
quite right, we might be unintentionally inflicting an addictive
mentality onto our kids. Instead, Holly encourages us to be more
of an “approach things heads-on” kind of mentality, where we talk
about our issues and find proactive ways to solve them. She and I
discuss the significance of this approach further in the episode.





Holly also emphasizes the value of reminding teens that no matter
how free they might feel, we are always monitoring their
behavior. She recommends that we not only keep an eye on our
teens, but also they’re friends, their behaviors, and if
necessary, their phones and physical space. She stresses that
today’s world isn’t quite safe for experimentation the way our
adolescence might have been, and how even alcohol or cannabis use
could lead to opioid use.





In our interview, Holly and I also talk a lot about what to do
when we confirm that a teen is struggling with opioid addiction.
Sometimes teens are willing to go into rehab and sometimes they
aren’t, but it’s interesting to note that most of the time, the
outcome is the same. While recovery is possible, relapse is
almost always a part of the process, she says, which can
sometimes make treatment options logistically and financially
difficult. We talk in depth about treatment options as we dive
further into opioid use and abuse education.



In the Episode…


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