Prescription Abusers In Need (P.A.I.N.) held its launch party on Thursday, Sept. 24 at the home of Terance and Susan Frazier.  For everyone involved, it was a time of celebration, a beginning of the non-profit organization’s battle against teenage prescription drug abuse.

But for the group’s founder and president Flindt Andersen, the horrors of what P.A.I.N. stands against nearly ruined his life forever.

Flindt Andersen began his 20-year descent into the world of prescription drug abuse when he began taking prescription painkillers after a knee surgery.  It didn’t take long before he was addicted, and the high he got from the pills was irresistible.

“The mind would tell you to stop, and the body wouldn’t let you,” Andersen said, also mentioning that his drug of choice was Vicodin, and that at one point he would take up to 60 of the pills in a single day.

“During that 20 years, of course, it caused massive amounts of sin and pain in my life.  It ruined my business, ruined my family life, and my relationships with friends,” Andersen continued.

P.A.I.N. was born so that teenagers won’t have to go through what Andersen did.  The organization exists to provide scholarships or funds for kids and their families that cannot afford the care of a treatment center.  It also provides family counseling, and individual and group therapy sessions for teens and their families.  P.A.I.N. has partnerships with several Christian and non-Christian therapists.  It exists to change legislation to get doctors to follow guidelines when writing prescriptions.  Its ultimate goal is to establishment a treatment center in Fresno that caters to adults and specific sections for teenagers for in-patient treatment.

“Right now there’s virtually no place to go in the Valley for parents to send children,” Andersen said.  “I get parents telling me that on a daily basis.  They have to send their kids to Utah or Oregon or Arizona.  Someplace other than California or the Valley.”

Andersen has also started a speaking career called “Don’t Hide the Scars,” in which he goes to different schools, churches and other organizations warning teens about the dangers of prescription drugs, which he says is the number one problem teens face today.  Often after he speaks kids talk with him and tell him they have a parent that abuses the drugs, and they don’t know what to do because they are intimidated.  Andersen says that saddens him.

“The other side of the coin is I like them coming up, because that tells me that they want some help, it tells me that they’re crying out,” Andersen said.  “They need somewhere to go, and right now there’s nowhere to go, or there hasn’t been anywhere to go.  But now that we’ve started our teen meeting groups and our counseling sessions and our referral services, there’s a place for these teenagers to go.”

One of the P.A.I.N. board members, Richard Wathen, was one of the 70 people enjoying the party, which included performances from the Fresno Christian Choral Ensemble.  Wathen knows what it is like to see someone suffer from addiction, as he has been a good friend of Andersen since their college days. 

“It’s painful, and I think the hardest part is not being able to help him,” Wathen said.  “There was nothing I could do, nothing I could say that was going to change anything.  That was probably the stark reality of it.”

Wathen saw his friend deteriorate to the point where he took him to the Betty Ford Center in 2001 as a final attempt to help his friend.

“He walked me through the front doors and said, ‘You’re my best friend, and if you ever wind up in the hospital due to your drug addiction I will never come see you again.  See you in 29 days,’” Andersen said, who is now an addict in recovery.

Andersen was the one who approached Wathen with his idea for P.A.I.N., and Wathen was intrigued by it.

“I knew he had a passion to taking the worst part of his life and knowing that if he could communicate the risks and the cost and the consequences of drug abuse, he might be able to help some kids from going down that road,” Wathen said.

P.A.I.N.’s core values are awareness, prevention and hope, but it will take the community’s help to accomplish the group’s mission.

“We need help from the community, let’s put Fresno even more on the map,” Andersen said.  “Let’s take the step forward.  Let’s stand up and say ‘Hey, this is the problem, we know there’s a problem, and we’re not embarrassed to say there’s a problem here.’  Let’s take the lead.  Let’s be on the forefront of this thing, and let’s just get it done.”

For more information on Prescription Abusers In Need, call (559) 978-9239 or visit www.GotPainUSA.com.