By EMS1 Staff
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — As the opioid epidemic continues to grow, one paramedic shared his own struggles with addiction.
Paramedic Clive Derbyshire said he struggled with alcohol, cocaine and meth addiction, and can empathize with overdose victims he provides care to. He said a traumatic experience spurred his addiction seven years ago.
“At the time, I had nowhere else to go. I knew that my decision-making at the time was going to lead to death,” Derbyshire told CBC. “Either by overdosing on stimulants and cardiac arrest or by killing myself.”
Derbyshire sought treatment and is now clean, but he said his past addiction serves as a vehicle to understand what overdose victims are going through.
“I relate to the powerlessness these people have. A lot of them are trying so hard to get out of where they’re at,” Derbyshire said. “They don’t want to be here. They’re broken. They tell themselves, ‘I’m never going to use again. I’m never going to have this overdose situation again.’”
Derbyshire also said that due to the high volume of overdose calls he responds to, he sometimes falls into what he calls “empathy fatigue.”
“Even I start to lose empathy and compassion even though I can relate to exactly what’s going on,” Derbyshire said.
Regardless, Derbyshire said choosing to seek treatment is the first step to fighting addiction.
“They have to reach out for help. They have to ask, and for that to happen, the stigma of addiction has to go away,” Derbyshire said.