Russ Taylor, an advisor with HealthWays Inc., runs a 90-day residential treatment facility on Edgington Lane in Wheeling. Miracles Happen is an abstinence-based center, meaning patients can't use any mood-altering medication.

"We have been full from day one. Full. We can't put anyone else in the beds. We have nowhere to put them," Taylor said.

The facility has several different programs like a 10-bed residential service for men; men-only outpatient services five days a week; and coed evening services three days a week.

For the men seeking treatment there, the days are very structured with meals, chores and counseling.

"These are intensive groups to help you deal with not only stopping the using, but the daily life of what we call a sacred place," Taylor said. "You're talking about an illness that bruises the soul."

The center accepts insurance or clients can pay out-of-pocket for treatment at a cost of $9,100, which is $100 a day.

Since the center is funded through state grants, West Virginia residents without coverage can also receive additional help. Out-of-state residents can come to the facility, too, but in-state clients take top priority.

Taylor said Miracles Happen treats about 100 people a year and the center has a 40 percent success rate, but he said he continues to see younger and younger heroin addicts.

"Right now our average age group is 28, but we have people in here who are 18. When I started in this 29 years ago, the average age was in the 50s," Taylor said.

He said staying clean in a lifelong commitment. As a recovering addict himself, he said he's living proof that overcoming addiction is possible.

There are also several outpatient programs throughout the Ohio Valley, like at Trinity Medical Center where they also have an abstinence-based program. Don Ogden, director of Trinity's Behavioral Medicine, also leads a 12-step program. He said at any given time, 20 people can be enrolled in the outpatient treatment, but before they get there, some have to be placed in one of four detox beds.

"Our average length of stay in detox is 3-5 days and normally with opiod users the third or fourth day is the most difficult," Ogden said.

The outpatient program lasts six to eight weeks, and recovering addicts have the option of day programs or evening sessions three nights a week.

Ogden said overcoming addiction is a difficult challenge, but determined patients are proving success is possible.

"67 percent of the people who successfully completed -- and I stress successfully complete our program and follow up with additional counseling or self help programs -- 67 percent of them are still clean and sober," he said.

While some place help get people off heroin without medication, prescription drugs are another form of treatment.

Chris Byers of CRC Health Group said there's no miracle pill to beat an addition, but he said medication can help. The Wheeling Treatment Center medically supervises methadone and Suboxone detox treatment to individuals who are attempting to overcome an addiction to or dependence upon heroin or other opioids.

Byers said methadone will work for people who have longer term problems or high-end addition problems. He said Suboxone is typically for younger adults or those with maybe a year of history abusing opioids.

"It's usually the better alternative to use Suboxone," he said.

Byers said the medications work because they alleviate withdrawal symptoms, fight psychological and physiological cravings, and have a blockade effect.

"If you relapsed and used heroin, you're not going to get the euphoric high," Byers said.

Plus, if a person uses heroin then takes Suboxone, they feel negative effects instantly.

"You'll see the normal withdrawal signs but you'll see them immediate."

The Wheeling Treatment Center provides four different types of programs: maintenance to help clients stay stabilized; maintenance and abstinence, which is 18 months of medication-based assistance followed by six months of abstinence-based aftercare; short term detox; and long term detox.

"Our average patient is with us for about 28 months but there is about 5-10 percent of our patient population that will need to be on maintenance, methadone or Suboxone for the long haul, maybe even the rest of their life," Byers said.

Recovering addicts do develop physical dependencies to the medications but Byers said the goal is to gradually taper them off without any problems.

"Anytime you start a drug, you want to know how it will affect you, whether that be an allergy medication or an addition medication. Once you reach stabilization … there is no impairment. Patients can drive. Patients work."

He said, with methadone, there is the possibility of an overdose, but he said "rarely will you see that in an opiod treatment program."

The Wheeling Treatment Center accepts insurance, but for cash-paying clients, methadone treatment costs $12.50 a day and Suboxone costs $20 a day.

Often, even when heroin addicts are seeking help, treatment centers are full so they are turned away or put on waiting lists.

Russ Taylor, an advisor with HealthWays Inc. who runs a 90-day residential treatment facility in Wheeling, said in the entire state of West Virginia, there are just 240 beds for centers like his.

It's another harsh reality that addicts and their families are forced to face: when addicts are ready for help, they sometimes can't get it.

"We treat close to 100 people a year," Taylor said. "We have 22 on a waiting list right now so that seals up the beds for 6 months if they all come."

Don Ogden, , director of Trinity Medical Center's Behavioral Medicine, said in the first three months of 2010, the facility's inpatient detox for opiod addiction has gone up 10 percent.

"The reason we can't take them is we have no more beds," Ogden said.

Fred McDonald, director of The Lee Day Report Center in Weirton, said, "Over the eight years it's just gotten worse over time. I don't know. We try with the outpatient counseling and the drug court program which have good success rate, but I think we'll need to increase our inpatient beds to help a lot of the heroin users."

Taylor said you can't take a heroin addict and say, "'Wait two weeks.' They're going to use and you don't find old heroin addicts, you find dead people."