Dr. Doug Burgess the medical director of Addiction Services at University Health in Kansas City and teaches psychiatry at UMKC.
He spoke about how he got into the field of addiction psychiatry and about some of the misconceptions people — including himself at one point — have about those with substance use disorders.
For the month of September, we’re focusing on substance use disorders and some of the treatment options that exist for Missourians.
Dr. Doug Burgess: Definitely, when I started my residency training in psychiatry, I had a lot of stigma and just didn't understand addiction.
I saw it as something that people were being selfish, and, you know, I didn't see it as a real medical illness. I just didn't understand it.
And then I was fortunate I got an opportunity to work at a residential treatment facility that provided really good care for patients with substance use disorders.
I got to see them over the course of six weeks, and it's like they completely transformed.
And it, you know, I distinctly remember one of the parts of that program was a family program where their family came and stayed with them for a week, and I got to see them interact.
You can hear more from Dr. Burgess in next Tuesday’s Health & Wealth Show where I explore the changing legality around the synthetic opioid, 7OH.
And it just dawned on me: like these people really love their families, they love their children — it wasn't just a bad person; they had, you know, great values. It's just something was getting in the way.
So, that kind of transformed my perspective, and you know, now I'm so happy to do what I do because I think one of the biggest misconceptions about people with substance use disorder is that they don't get better, right?
And the reality is they've done studies that show 75% of people do recover, and that's always surprising to people.
So, my work is really rewarding. I get to see people getting better, in recovery, living full lives, and I feel like it's really meaningful work.
I think people oftentimes when they think about substance use disorders, they kind of, they can relate it to their own experiences with substance. They say, "Oh, I drink every now and then, but you know, if I have to work, I just don't drink.”
A substance use disorder is really, for whatever reason, when people — and there's lots of factors that go into it — some of it is genetics, their life experiences. Sometimes people may be self-medicating anxiety or depression. So there's lots of factors that go into it
But when we talk about a substance use disorder, essentially the person has lost control of their use because of chronic exposure to substances.
It causes physical changes in their brain and their nervous system, and once those physical changes are there, they can't just make the decision to stop using because oftentimes they'll experience such severe withdrawal symptoms, and they can't function, right?
It goes from, early on when people are using; they tend to use substances because they make them feel good, but once somebody has a substance use disorder, they're really using because when they don't use, they feel horrible.
And so, it's just one of those things that unless you've experienced it, I don't think people can really appreciate the difference between casual substance use and someone who has a substance use disorder.
