His first day in Mesa, he hooked up with another addict and scored some heroin. Because he came so far, and he expressed contrition, he was allowed to continue in the program. But he was put on probabtion.
Yet his pattern continued. Even though our doctor prescribed medication to ease his withdrawal, he was caught in possession of benzodiazepines the following day. And later he was found in another client's room, reportedly looking for something to steal to trade for drugs.
At that point he was referred to another facility, loudly protesting how we'd violated his rights by taking away his contraband drugs..
At TLC we sometimes give latitude to those withdrawing from drugs. But there comes a point when addicts must participate in their own recovery. None of us is going to work harder than the addict who wants recovery. We'll help, but we can't it do for them.
A lot of us have had people in our lives who really hoped for us to recover. Mothers. Fathers. Wives. Husbands. Parole officers, counselors. Many people wanted us to get clean and sober. And most of them were interested in our recovery long before we were.
In my case, I ended up in prison long before I thought of recovery. People were tired of my nonsense. They were tired of trying to motivate me to change. At the time I thought they were mean and evil. That they didn't know how to party.
Today I empathize with those who didn't want me in their lives while I was using drugs and alcohol. And this young man whose parents spent money to get him here reminds me of the damage I did to others.
Hopefully he'll someday get clean and sober and make amends.
At TLC we sometimes give latitude to those withdrawing from drugs. But there comes a point when addicts must participate in their own recovery. None of us is going to work harder than the addict who wants recovery. We'll help, but we can't it do for them.
A lot of us have had people in our lives who really hoped for us to recover. Mothers. Fathers. Wives. Husbands. Parole officers, counselors. Many people wanted us to get clean and sober. And most of them were interested in our recovery long before we were.
In my case, I ended up in prison long before I thought of recovery. People were tired of my nonsense. They were tired of trying to motivate me to change. At the time I thought they were mean and evil. That they didn't know how to party.
Today I empathize with those who didn't want me in their lives while I was using drugs and alcohol. And this young man whose parents spent money to get him here reminds me of the damage I did to others.
Hopefully he'll someday get clean and sober and make amends.
getting off the buss and talking to the driver who picked me up I was told that TLC was a "safe and sober " place to be, and I was relieved. Todays blog reflects,to me, an element of risk for even a short time. But then when I look back that element was probably there then too I just didn't search it out
ReplyDeleteHey not everybody is safe, and not everybody is sober...when you start looking at what's wrong...you might want to look in the mirror...it's not tlc.....it's you
ReplyDelete