Addicted? All you have to do is call

By Anya Tikka
MILFORD — Pike County Commissioners Chair Matt Osterberg held up rubber bracelets with a message: “Recovery is possible."
The bracelets are part of an effort to remind those who are addicted to drugs or alcohol know that help is available.
“The idea behind this is that when the person who’s addicted, at that one moment when they reach out, they turn it upside down, and it has an 800 number to call," Osterberg said.
The number on the bracelets is 1-866-824-3578. The answering service is available 24 hours a day, he said.
“These bracelets are meant to be given out to individuals if you recognize someone who’s suffering from the effects of addiction," he said. "I’ve personally handed out a hundred of these.”
He said he distributed them to the leaders of a local 12-step program, who handed them out to their members. He urged everyone who knows someone with an addiction problem to give them out.
Osterberg said the bracelets will be distributed to the emergency crews who deal with those who have overdosed.
“They can slip those over the person’s arm, and once they are awake the next morning, they can see it and know help is available," he stressed. “It’s another effort to bring awareness, to help those who are addicted. They can possibly save this, and stop all this suffering that’s going on around. “It’s little things but little things mean big things when someone’s life if in danger.”
Another Reality Tour, a drug addiction education program that helps parents recognize the signs of addiction in their children, will be coming in the fall too, Osterberg said.