Posts Tagged ‘heroine addiction’

Not All Serious Addictions End In Heartbreak – Just Look At John

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

The first time I spoke with John he was leaving treatment. He said his life was much better on heroin, and he had no interest going to meetings or working with a sponsor. John was adamant about not seeing a therapist because it never worked in the past, and his main goal was to finish his time in the sober house he felt forced to live in and get a job to move in with his girlfriend, who was supposedly sober at the time.

While he stayed in a sober house his family had enrolled him in the Recovery Assistance Program (RAP), hoping he might come around with a little push and the creation of some boundaries. Though this was the hope, it took a while for reality to catch up.

I was his caseworker, responsible for helping him in his recovery, providing support and acting as liaison for his concerned family. Every check-in for a few months John wanted nothing to do with recovery, and two months after leaving treatment he was kicked out of his sober house for denying a drug test – he admitted he would test positive for heroin and marijuana.

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A week later John went to jail for shooting up heroin in a bus stop. He was released and had to spend the night in a shelter. Afterward he went to stay with a friend. I worked with his family, urging them to stick to the recovery plan, not pick him up and let him experience the streets he will call home if he continues his drug use – “raising the bottom” so to speak, while being there for and leading the family we created accountability and allowed him to experience the real world he chose by refusing help

A couple weeks later John overdosed on heroin twice and ended up in the hospital. The family and I worked with the court system to make sure they made him go to treatment. The day he appeared in court for shooting up heroin in the bus stop was the day his life began to turn around.

He was ordered by the judge to retry treatment. John went to an in-patient rehabilitation center for 90 days and came out a completely different person, committed to recovery and finding himself as the caring, bright guy he had once been and discovered he could be again.

John has been sober for over a year now.  He has a sponsor and sponsors four other recovering young men. He attends meetings every day and remains very involved in the sober community, even bringing meetings to treatment centers. He took care of all his court appearances, probation and consequential volunteer work from previous arrests.  John’s life has turned around; he now has a full time job and still shows up for aftercare at the treatment center a year later.

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