Beaches Recovery Talks Opioid Abuse on “First Coast Living”

On Monday, Aug. 22, 2016, Marcus De Carvalho, M.D. and Dylan Smith of Beaches Recovery appeared on “First Coast Living”—an NBC-affiliated Jacksonville morning show—to discuss the local and national effect of opioid abuse.

From Left to Right: Dylan Smith, Marcus De Carvalho, M.D.

De Carvalho, who is the Medical Director of Beaches Recovery in Jacksonville, Florida, shared a staggering statistic.

“The United States is 5% of the population of the world,” he said, “but we use 80% of all the opioids that are made by the pharmaceutical companies.”

He went on to say that while there’s a segment of the population—mainly teens and young adults—who use opioids like oxycodone, hyrdrocodone, morphine, fentanyl and maybe even heroin recreationally— opioid abuse often occurs through misusing prescribed medications.

“When you treat somebody with pain—and say you start them on a low dose of pain medication—these pain medications are very addictive and [you develop] something called a tolerance. As you go through time, you have to increase the dosage of that medicine to get the same relief of that pain.”

Smith, who is the Director of Admissions at Beaches Recovery and at one point struggled with addiction himself, says that it’s hard to detect if people have an opioid problem, let alone if they’re under the influence.

“You can smell alcohol on someone’s breath,” he said, “but when it comes to the opiates it’s a little more difficult.”

Beaches Recovery Offers Long-Term Recovery From Opioid Abuse

Beaches Recovery, an addiction treatment center in Jacksonville, Florida, has made significant strides to help people struggling with opioid abuse. The key, De Carvalho said, is to treat each patient as an individual.

“We want to tailor our treatment to [finding out] the underlying reason people are addicted to these medicines.”

In order to do that, he said, Beaches Recovery focuses on evidence-based treatments such as:

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
• Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
• Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing

Beaches Recovery has also partnered with Jacksonville University to combat the opioid epidemic at a local level.

“We want Jacksonville to have high quality addiction treatment,” De Carvalho said, “we don’t want to have people leave the community to get treatment.”

Smith added that because much of Beaches’ admission staff went through the recovery process, they understand how tough it can be. He also cited how vital support from family and friends is to recovery.

“Without that support, I truly don’t know today if I’d be sitting on this couch next to Dr. De Carvalho talking to you about the great things we have going on at Beaches Recovery, and how we can help people.”

Beaches Recovery can help you or someone you love overcome opioid abuse. Call them today at 866.605.0532.