Alternative therapies may suppress meth cravings

By Toni Sparacino
Morning News Staff Writer

Kassie Dilldine was taking multi-vitamins for two days before the Moffat County Safety Center stopped giving them to her. Dr. Carolyn Gochee explains that methamphetamines strip the body of nutrients and that vitamins help restore energy and suppress cravings. “She’s not allowed to have them again because I’m not an MD,” Gochee says. The vitamins cost about $30 per month — more than most inmates can afford. Dilldine is lucky, Dr. Gochee says, because she has a good family support system and because she is young. Dilldine is 19, and her troubles with meth only began as recently as July. “She didn’t use for ten years like some of the other ones that we have,” Gochee says.

Dilldine lays face down on the chiropractic table as Dr. Gochee applies mild pressure to her back. Dr. Gochee is a practitioner of Sacro Occipital Technique, a chiropractic method that uses manipulation by applying low-force and cranial adjustments. “Different areas are associated with different organs. If that organ is active, that area will be tender,” Dr. Gochee says. Dilldine began treatments with Dr. Gochee prior to her Dec. 22 arrest for methamphetamine possession. The Dilldine family knew of Dr. Gochee and her work through the Downtown Business Association. Kassie’s mother, Kandee, and grandmother, Sandra Mansfield, are owners of KS Creations in downtown Craig. “I am more of one that is going to go for the natural stuff than the drugs,” Kandee Dilldine says. “I really didn’t know about more conventional treatments.”

Dilldine says that the pressure Dr. Gochee applies to her abdomen tickles. She moves across the linoleum floor in gym socks to sit for licensed acutherapist Doug Seward. Seward administers small doses of electrical current to Dilldine’s ears to help suppress cravings — a treatment known as “auriculotherapy.” He says auriculotherapy is a practice of Chinese medicine that has been around since the 70s. The electrical current stimulates acupoints in the ear in the same way that reflexology is practiced on the hands.

Photo Description:
Kassie Dilldine lays face down on the chiropractic table as Dr. Carolyn Gochee applies mild pressure to her back.