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5| O akville B eaver | T hursday,S eptem ber 13,2018 insidehalton.com said Mike. "We'd see lying and be- trayal and we'd take it per- sonally. We'd think there was something wrong with us, something wrong with our daughter. Drugs just change the whole psycholo- gy and family dynamic and it just gets absolutely crazy." Mike and Thereasa said the situation became so in- tolerable they eventually kicked Mikaela out of the family home shortly beforefamily home shortly beforef her 19th birthday. Mikaela, now 25, has since kicked her addiction and is now attending univer- sity and has a job. She also now enjoys a bet- ter relationship with her parents. The boyfriend who intro- duced her to opioids was not so lucky. He died from an overdose about five years ago. Mike said now that par- ticipation in a support group has helped him understand the depth of the addiction his daughter was dealing with, his attitude toward the young man who got her ad-young man who got her ad-y dicted has softened. "I used to hate him before I knew better. I thought he was evil incarnate. He intro- duced my daughter to opioids and got her addicted to all these terrible things," said Mike. "Retrospectively, I see the guy as just a victim, just a kidguy as just a victim, just a kidg who made mistakes at thewho made mistakes at thew wrong time. He was no evil person. He was just a kid and I was wrong to look at him that way." Both Mikaela and her parents said they were helped greatly by the Oak- ville youth support group Resiliency 4 Recovery (R4R).Resiliency 4 Recovery (R4R).R The group, which has been operating in the com- munity for about seven years, was created by youthsyears, was created by youthsy for youths between the agesfor youths between the agesf of 16-29, who are struggling with substance abuse and/ or mental health issues. It also features a parent support group. Mike said both groups give individuals the opportu-give individuals the opportu-g nity to tell their stories so they can understand they are not alone in what they are going through. "For us, the important thing to learn was that this can happen to absolutely anybody," said Mike. "The perception with ad- diction is that this only hap- pens to poor families and people on welfare and things like this. It can happen to absolutely anybody and it is no- body's fault. It's some bad luck, maybe some bad deci- sions people make when they are too young to know better. Nobody asks to be- come an addict." He emphasized R4R is not a self-contained recovery program, but rather a group young people can join to helpyoung people can join to helpy them stay clean following re- hab. He said this is important because after rehab there is the temptation for young people to go back to their old friends and their old habits.friends and their old habits.f Mikaela said the group is a special place where people can get to know and relate to each other on a level that can't be found anywhere else. "There's no judgment or name calling," she said. Angelique, another R4R member, said it is usually in- timidating to go to a group for the first time, but thatfor the first time, but thatf wasn't the case with R4R. "I remember when I first came and it wasn't intimidat- ing at all and I am a super anxious person," she said. "I came back the next week and continued to come back and I was really sur- prised by that." Angelique, who says she comes from a "good Catholic family," says she started do-family," says she started do-f ing drugs at age 14. She said her drug use, which began as a result of which began as a result of w NEWS SURVIVORS OF OPIOID ADDICTION AND THEIR PARENTS SHARE THEIR TRIALS, TRIBULATIONS AND THEIR ROAD TO RECOVERY OPIOID STATISTICS A report put together by the Halton Region on Halton opioid use between 2006 and 2015 found that Halton had rates of opioid-related emergency department visits and hospitalizations that were almost half of Ontario's rates. That said the report noted that between 2006 and 2015, there were increases in opioid-related emergency department visits and hospitalizations in both Ontario and Halton, with rates doubling. Between 2013 and 2015 there were on average 223 opioid-related emergency department visits and 59 opioid-related hospitalizations each year in Halton. Approximately 58 per cent of the opioid-related emergency department visits involved opioid-related mental or behavioural issues (such as acute intoxication, dependency or withdrawal) while 43 per cent involved opioid overdose. Sixty-four per cent of these hospitalizations involved opioid overdose and 37 per cent involved an opioid-related mental or behavioural issue. The report stated that each year between 2011 and 2015 there were approximately 13 deaths in Halton involving opioid toxicity. On average, two of these deaths per year involved fentanyl. 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