INUVIK
Ben Cox has turned a new chapter in his oft-troubled life.

Ben Cox, a former Inuvik emergency room nurse who was convicted on fraud and theft charges in 2011, is re-releasing a book that details his struggles. - photo courtesy of Ben Cox

Cox, a former Inuvik nurse who was convicted on theft and forgery charges in 2011 relating to stealing narcotics from the Inuvik Regional Hospital, has re-issued a copy of his book titled My Name is Ben and I'm a Nurse/Addict.

The books details how the successful emergency room nurse was brought down by an addiction to drugs he couldn't admit to himself after more than two years of thefts from the hospital.

Cox said he turned to drugs out of "curiosity and boredom" but never could believe he was an addict. Despite evidence to the contrary, Cox said most medical professionals who develop addictions think they are "above it" and know better than to become addicted.

He said he found the routine of working in contract positions "a grind" and he was very unhappy in his marriage. Cox and his wife had taken jobs in Inuvik to help pay down their student loans and for the adventure. But the monotony was something he wasn't prepared for.

That restless nature was perhaps a sign of a disposition to turn to outside sources for stimulation, not that Cox recognized it then.

"You live there," he said. "You know what the nights are like, and a lot of the time it was just my wife and I over the almost four years we were there."

"I'm human, and curiosity (and boredom) just got the best of me. It was isolated, and we didn't go out too much. We had friends, who were mostly doctors and nurses."

Cox said the hospital emergency room was busy enough during the day to keep him reasonably content and the restlessness at bay, but he found the long night shifts, when things weren't so busy, difficult.

Nonetheless, despite his increasing addiction problem, Cox said he was a highly-functioning addict who managed to convince himself to overlook the obvious signs of addiction.

He had been forging records to cover his thefts, but was ultimately undone one day by a record-keeping error. Everything unravelled after that, and he narrowly escaped a jail sentence after the Crown attorney was impressed that he had sought rehabilitation on his own.

"I was trusted," he said as to how he managed to carry on for more than two years without detection. "And I was one of the longest-serving nurses there. I was considered a full-timer.

"No one knew," Cox said. "It was a shock to my family and to my parents, who are both nurses. This was traumatic, devastating for a lot of people."

His marriage broke up, and his family had to endure the considerable publicity that followed the case.

"There was everyone's take on it except mine," he said, and that was the germ of the book. "Everybody's judging me on this one thing," he said he remembered thinking while leaving rehab. "Why don't they get to know me and understand what I did? So I wrote it for myself."

He's still a touch bitter about that. Cox said if he had been in a permanent position rather than on a contract, he would have been offered rehab and it "would have been swept under the carpet." Instead he paid for his rehab and then served a year-long house-arrest sentence.

He's been talking about the book on Facebook pages originating in Inuvik, and it's receiving a warm reception from people who remember him well.

Cox, in a frank and lengthy telephone interview from his home on the East Coast, said he had never intended to write the book, per se, when he began it in 2011 and 2012.

"It was an extension of therapy," he said. "I just wanted a voice and to feel good about myself again."

It took him around six months to write the book, which he self-published.

Cox said he now sells his books for a living, and is successful at it. He is unlikely to ever return to the medical or health-care field, although he's had at least one opportunity.

"I cannot be around it," he said, referring to drugs of any kind.

Cox said he's been clean for more than a year now, but is also fighting a battle against alcoholism. He's been sober for more than a month, and hopes to stay that way.

"Hey, I've relapsed (since leaving Inuvik)," he said frankly. "It's always a struggle."

Cox said he'd like to one day return to Inuvik, perhaps as a speaker.

"I have a lot of good memories from up there. It was my home."

The book is available from the author's website.