Recovery Works

Even though it was 110° at 6:30 in the evening the audience paid close attention as the young man told his story of achieving some 18 months of sobriety.

His journey to sobriety started when he was a young man with only one mission in life: to stay blasted on drugs and alcohol. No matter what obstacles stood in his way he was always able to achieve his goal of getting high. In jail or prison, his one thought was that he would get high the minute he was released. If he received a probation sentence he never completed it because as soon as he left jail he ran directly to the dope house. He lived to be high.

For those of us who've been involved with the management of TLC over the years this is one of the best payoffs we can have. It is gratifying to see a man in his early 30s who can stand in front of an audience of 50 and talk about how he finally discovered that the answer to his addiction was to get into a 12 step program and practice the principles he learned there. An even more important aspect of it is that newcomers in the audience saw a peer experiencing success because he's sober.

In the 12 step programs it's important to find someone we can relate to. And because this man was in early recovery newcomers could find hope in his words. When I was in early recovery when I would hear someone with 10 years of sobriety it was difficult to relate. Ten years seemed a lifetime. But when I heard someone who had six months or a year talk about recovery, then I could feel what he was telling me. The man with the shorter time had recovery experiences that were still fresh to him – something he communicated as he spoke.

When we heard the story this young man told on this sweltering night, it reaffirms that what we do is important – it shows that recovery works.