PROVO, Utah – Sleep, sleep and more sleep was a small degree of what it took for Troy Atkisson to begin the process of recovery from methamphetamines.

Atkisson, a 44-year-old ex-convict residing in Missouri, was on and off meth for nine years. He cooked it, sold it and used it on a regular basis. While serving a sentence in jail, he was forced to stay drug-free for the first time.

“It was a daily ritual,” Atkisson said. “I slept everyday on it, I ate everyday on it, I did it everyday. My body became accustomed to it. So when I did stop doing it at times, then I would take a couple of weeks of sleeping a lot until I started feeling normal again.”

Methamphetamine is easy to make, cheap to buy, extremely addicting – and has been the rave lately.

According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, 6.2 percent of high school students tried meth in the year 2005.

There are many obstacles to overcome in order to be free of the shackles of meth.

“I felt drained, useless, no desire to do anything when I was without the drug,” Atkisson said. “It’s the worst thing I’ve ever done in my life.”

Obstacles of Recovery

One of the first and hardest obstacles is the body’s physical addiction to the drug.

Chemicals from the drug stimulate the adrenal gland to send additional adrenaline to the brain to stimulate the pleasure chemicals, said Gale Stringham, the director of Addiction and Psychological Services in Orem.

The brain then becomes used to an elevated level of pleasure chemicals like serotonin.

“There is that biological drive, that craving, that seeking, that is so powerful,” Stringham said. “I want to quit but I don’t want to quit.”

Another obstacle that many face is their own desire to change.

“A person has to want to stop for them,” Stringham said. “Their wives and children or the people they work with, extended family, friends… [they] just get the benefit.”

Recovering addicts must battle the urge everyday until it comes under control.

“They have to do something on a daily basis to stay in recovery,” Stringham said. “Relapse begins the day you stop recovery. Initially it is work. Then what it does is it turns work into the way you live your life.”

Stringham said the primary reason people abuse drugs is to escape and forget traumatic experiences they’ve had in their life.

“Ninety-five percent of women who are addicted to drugs have been sexually abused or molested,” Stringham said. “What has been found is that people use chemicals to get away from emotional pain.”

Another obstacle that stands in the way can be a person’s environment, said Gordon Lindsay, associate dean of the College of Health and Human Services.

When a person is trying to recover, Lindsay said, certain cues or associations might stimulate them to want to relapse with the drug. They need to create a new environment for themselves.

“The slogan is ‘new playground, new playmates, new play things,'” Lindsay said.

Success and Failure in Recovery

Coming from years of experience and a strong background in working with those involved with drug abuse, Stringham noticed there were three main components needed for a successful recovery to happen: a strong belief in God, professional help through some sort of counseling and active participation in the 12-step recovery process.

Stringham said he is confident those who have these components will succeed in recovery. Those that are missing some of those pieces are less likely to achieve ultimate success.