People are finding freedom from meth addiction thanks to a Winnipeg program that's offering addicts a way out.

Tim Fletcher, Founder and president of Finding Freedom and RE:ACT (Recovery Education for Addiction and Complex Trauma), is passionate about helping addicts out of addiction by focusing on trauma and healing.

It is well known that Winnipeg is dealing with crisis right now caused by an increase in crystal meth use. The crisis has been fueld by meth's relatively low price and high addictiveness.

The goal of the RE:ACT and Finding Freedom programs is to focus on the trauma that is evident in almost 100 per cent of addicts. These programs offer deep healing as Fletcher believes that if a real change is to be made, the underlying issues of why an addict would turn to self-medicating in the first place need to be addressed and re-parented.

These underlying issues most often stem from childhood trauma. Childhood trauma comes from living in an unsafe situation or constant instability as a child. Fletcher says when children grow up with the daily reality of feeling the need to fight, flight or freeze "they don't develop healthy tools . . . so their emotional maturity is very young although their body might be forty years old."

There are however two specific effects meth has on users; paranoia as well as damage to the frontal cortex. The frontal cortex effects impulse control which of course leads to impulsive behavior in meth users. This mix of symptoms, as well as the predatory nature of dealing the drug itself, makes getting out of a meth addiction extremely challenging.

The process for dealing with this kind of trauma and learning how to live again in a healthier way is a long road. "It takes people one to 10 years to kind of re-learn how to do life . . . or reparent themselves," says Fletcher.

Christy Anderson

Someone who has walked that road is Christy Anderson, a woman who had gone through Finding Freedom when it was just starting out in 2006.

Anderson says that at that time, "nobody really even knew how to address it because nobody knew what it was." Anderson went on to say that she had sought help at other treatment centers but was turned away because they were afraid and "didn't even know how to handle a meth addiction." Eventually, she found RE:ACT and Tim Fletcher who had the tools to help her.

"I didn't know how to live life in a healthy way," says Anderson as she described feeling powerlessness in her childhood which resulted in unresolved trauma throughout her adulthood. 

Anderson sees, "people who are gravitating toward using a substance that makes them feel strong and powerful and in control." 

Instead of looking at the state of some of the people in our city and thinking "what is wrong with you" Anderson says she now finds herself thinking, "what happened to you."

Fletcher agrees this shift in our perception of addiction is of vital importance to the healing of our city. He explained that especially as Christians we need to stop viewing addicts as "weak-willed or rebelling against God" and start learning about how to help people recover and heal from trauma in healthy ways. 

Anderson said friends, family, and society as a whole had given up on her, then added quickly, "but that is what I love about God.

Anderson added that it is important to remember "God chooses the broken...he chooses us to give us a new life and to build us up into these amazing new people. And he does this to show his strength and power."

The theme running through her story is not dissimilar from so many of our own stories. Many people feel weak and powerless, then go looking for that strength and power in earthly things, Anderson says she just feels "blessed, like really blessed," that God chose her and daily chooses us and transforms our stories as we find strength and power through him.

Anderson now has two degrees and in going back for a third shortly, she also works at the U of M as a Graduate Student Success Coordinator.

Mike Millard

Another success story coming from the efforts of Fletcher through Finding Freedom is that of Mike Millard. 

Millard explained, "I was an addict for nearly 20 years and it was just the last year of my addiction that I was involved in crystal meth so I've been around a lot of different things for a long time.

Millard went to jail for a month after confessing to his next door neighbor who was a policeman at the time and is now Chief of Police, Danny Smyth.

Having a new relationship with God Millard knew "if I went there he would keep me safe, and I knew that if I could get out of there, and get treatment, and beat my charges, and move on with my life that I would just try to live a life that honoured God from then on.

"The more I gave my life and my will to God the more people he sent my way," Millard says he has had a number of "really solid" men come alongside him, including Tim Fletcher.

In the same way, Millard is coming alongside "previously incarcerated men that have been involved in gangs so they can become self contributing members of the community." He is apart of the board of directors for the project About Face. This program is focused on creating an environment for men to receive help in coming out of addiction by providing mentorship, and job training in the form of helping transform shipping containers into affordable housing.

RE:ACT and Finding Freedom

Right now Fletcher, through RE:ACT and Finding Freedom in working with the police by speaking at public forums about complex trauma. Fletcher is also working with Millard on preparing seven five minute videos for high schools to educate youth on complex trauma and how it leads to addiction.

Fletcher also stressed that in addition to changing the way we see addicts we need to carefully consider how we choose to help people who might be struggling from addiction and living on the street. "I think in many cases that could possibly actually keep them in the problem longer because you are taking away their negative consequences for even longer," Fetcher said in reference to discouraging panhandling.

Millard added "the irony of why I am here today is that the organization that helped me is receiving very little funding and it seems like there is more work to be done, more money that needs to be spent and more resources that need to be provided to organizations that are trying to help people recover."

Fletcher really encourages those who have the resources to be wise about how they help.

For more information on the work that was so impactful for Anderson and Millard click here.