Lakeview Health Systems’ program of recovery is based upon the concept that one alcoholic or addict can help another stay clean and sober.  You can play an important role in helping others stay sober by sharing your own experience, strength, struggles, and hopes –your story.  Sharing your story might just help another struggling alcoholic or addict to enter or re-enter treatment. It might also give another addict or alcoholic the strength to continue to maintain recovery.

If you would like to share your story, please call Joanna Painton-Hathaway at 1-800-833-9057, or e-mail her at jpainton@lakeviewhealth.us.

We are always open to ideas and suggestions for additional topics for our newsletter that will help you in the ongoing process of recovery.

What is your sober/clean date?
April 17, 2003 (was intoxicated upon arrival at Lakeview on April 16, 2003).

What are you recovering from?
The disease of addiction. I was an indiscriminate drug user. Although I had a preference for IV heroin and cocaine, I would, and did use anything I could get. My first drug was alcohol, and as it turned out, alcohol was the last drug I used.

What made you decide to come to LVH for inpatient treatment?
I was seriously contemplating suicide when a still, small voice spoke to me and suggested there might be another way. I picked up the phonebook and called the first number I found for drug treatment. I broke down on the phone with a man at a call center, admitting for the first time in my life that I had a problem and that I needed help. The man on the phone kept me talking and asked if I thought it would be beneficial to get out of town for treatment. I really had not thought it through to that point; I was just beaten and open to any suggestion about how I could get help. Fortunately I still had my job, and therefore my health insurance at that time. Once my insurance was approved, that was all I needed to know.

Did you make the decision on your own, or did your family, work, courts, church help you with the decision?
I made the decision myself. I had finally run out of excuses and blaming other people for all my troubles. I had been able to hide the worst of my behavior, keeping a job and holding up a façade for everyone else to see. In the end, the façade was crumbling. I could no longer keep up the act and my need to use was overwhelming all of my efforts to keep it a secret. My family knew I partied, but they had no idea just how much my life was controlled by the drugs. All those years I thought I was in control, but I was trapped in a downward spiral. Admitting that I needed help was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Telling my family was almost as hard, but they were very supportive.

What did you learn about yourself and your disease while you were at LVH?
One of the most important revelations that I have ever experienced came to me during my time at LVH. I was sitting in a counselor’s office explaining to her that my intellect was one of my greatest strengths. Then, she asked me to list my greatest weaknesses. Having just said that my intellect was far above average, I suddenly took stock of my situation. If I was really as smart as I’d always thought, then, I would be sitting in my therapist’s chair. I came to understand that what I had really learned to do with my “great intellect” was to rationalize and justify an incredible amount of insane behavior in my life. I learned that the person that I lied to the most was me. I learned that I have a disease which is progressive, incurable, and fatal if left untreated. I learned that I am powerless over my disease on my own, but that there is help available thru the 12 Steps and the fellowship of other recovering addicts.

While in treatment you were introduced to the idea of changing people, places and things. What changes have you had to make on your journey of recovery?
I had tried to get clean on my own, or at least, I’d tried many times to control my using. Each of those times I thought I could just continue doing the same things, going the same places, and hanging out with the same people. Every time, I failed. Then, I decided I would actually try something different. This time I would make every effort to change. It wasn’t easy to leave all of my old friends, but I found that the ones that really cared about me understood why I couldn’t hang out anymore. It wasn’t my friends’ fault that I couldn’t stay clean around them. I could never keep myself from comparing myself to them and convincing myself that if they could use, so could I. Somehow. I never looked at how unmanageable their lives were.

Since I have been in recovery, I have made many new friends. I have learned how to have a good time and enjoy life without drugs. Basically all of my friends today are in recovery. They are people with similar interests as mine, they are living life clean. We go to meetings together but, we also hang out for coffee, go out to dinner in groups, and go to movies and concerts, all sorts of fun, clean activities. I’ve even travelled cross country with some of my friends in recovery. When I was using, I could hardly do more than talk about going to fun places. My life today is truly better than I’d really thought possible when I checked in at LVH.

How do you maintain your sobriety today?
I took the suggestions that were given to me when I left Lakeview Health Center. I made a meeting as soon as I got home. I got phone numbers. I got connected with the NA Fellowship. I made 90 meetings in 90 days, and then I did it again, three more times. I got a sponsor. I got a home group. I work the Steps. I got involved in service work. Today, I still do all of those same things. I have been clean over 8 years and I still make at least 3 meetings every week. I am a phone line volunteer. I carry the message into treatment facilities and prisons. I have been given the opportunity to travel the country and meet other addicts from all over the world in service to Narcotics Anonymous. I always remember that I am clean, Just for Today. Actively taking part in my recovery in this way has kept me clean for far longer than I’d ever managed on my own. Also, I have real, great friends today. My relationships with my family are better than they have ever been. My whole life today is better than it has ever been, and it is all a direct result of being clean and in recovery and it just keeps getting better.

What would you say to someone to help them make the decision to go to in-patient treatment?
In patient treatment was invaluable to me in my recovery. I do not know that I could have gotten clean without my time completely immersed in a safe environment being nourished and cared for and taught the basic principles of recovery. Treatment gave me a jump start. I came out with 30 days clean, a roadmap for recovery, and a choice.

Give an example of a situation you have done differently since maintaining your recovery.
When I first got clean, I tried to hang out with my cousin, whom I had been living with and using with before going to treatment. He’d invited me over to order pizza and watch a movie. When I got there, some of our other friends were there, drinking beer. Then, they began to smoke pot and offered it to me. I sat there for a time and just got angrier and angrier. Finally, I got up, said goodbye, left, and called my sponsor. I told him how mad I was, and how I couldn’t believe that they would put me in such a situation. He promptly pointed out that I had put myself in that situation and that I had no right to be mad at them for doing what they’d always done.

Overall how would you describe your experience of inpatient treatment helped you to transition into the real world as a sober productive adult free from alcohol and drugs? Would you recommend inpatient treatment to someone?
Inpatient treatment gave me some valuable perspectives on myself and about the disease of addiction.

What were some of the things you learned about yourself?
It truly helped me to see thru the lies I’d always told myself about being able to handle, or control my drug use. I left inpatient treatment armed with knowledge of how my disease works. I would definitely recommend inpatient treatment to someone battling addiction.

I work in the field of addiction and mental health because of the rewards associated with helping patients make changes and grow. I enjoy working specifically at Combined Resources. I work with a team of people who have a passion for and find fulfillment from helping our patients recover and change their lives.

I am rewarded and inspired by assisting in our patients' e six week journey through treatment. Observing and sharing in their challenges, their growth, their good days and the hard days, gives me the desire to come to work everyday.

I have had the opportunity in the past to work with children, families, and chronically mentally ill adults. Although I found working within these populations rewarding, it does not compare to the fulfillment I receive by working with patients who are dually diagnosed.

I see the transformation patients make as they learn about their addiction and how they can begin anew to live healthy lives. Watching as patients move through the process, shed their burdens, gain hope, and learns how to be healthy, makes everyday worthwhile in my career.

Mandy Jack, LMHC

Help Yourself by Helping Others

If a family member or friend is in need of help, call an Admissions Coordinator for advice. They can get you a copy of our Intervention Guide, a “how-to” kit for convincing a loved one to get treatment. Call 1-800-884-1727.

Recovery from any addiction requires personal change. It is impossible to change and do what you have done in the past and then, expect a different outcome. The clinical definition of addiction is a "compulsive repetition of a known behavior with adverse consequences”. Change is uncomfortable because it brings people into the unknown. Rather than face the unknown, even if it holds wonders, people will often return to old behaviors because it is easier to stay in what they know than to take a leap of faith into the unknown and be open to change.

Change is uncomfortable. However, once a person decides to change and then takes an action to change, there is always shift in consciousness. Surrounding yourself with people in recovery who understand the need to change helps empower you to keep engaging the process of change. Fighting change keeps one routed in sickness. It saps our energy and hinders our potential. In 12 Step rooms, we can find support for engaging the change no matter how difficult it may feel.

Change produces amazing results. Where there was always hopelessness there is hope, where there was anger there is now peace. These types of changes are profound and can create fear and anxiety within us. Having a sponsor and people around that are also engaged in the process of changing supports our efforts emotionally, spiritually, and physically. We find out we are not alone. The fall is a time of year to experience the joy of recovery symbolized in the changes in the environment: leaves changing. There is beauty in the change. The natural order of things is change--we are connected to that natural order.

We are looking to expand our alumni services by offering support groups nationwide. We are looking for alumni that are interested in becoming a support group leader. The support group leader meets with other alumni once a month. He or she is responsible for chairing the meeting. This is a great opportunity to give back and help you in your own recovery. Having a meeting of alumni may be the one thing that will keep someone going if he or she is struggling in recovery.

If you are interested in becoming a support group leader, you must have at least a year clean and sober, attend meetings regularly, and work a 12-step program.

If you are committed to helping other alumni and yourself as a support group leader, please contact Joanna Painton-Hathaway at 1-800-833-9057, or e-mail her at jpainton@lakeviewhealth.us

We are in the process of building a buddy program and need alumni to help.  This program is designed to connect newly discharged patients with recovering alumni. The buddy system will help those just out of treatment stay focused while they build their local support group. If you are interested in becoming a buddy volunteer, you must have at least a year clean and sober, be attending meetings, and working the 12-step program. If you are interested, please contact Joanna Painton-Hathaway at 1-800-833-9057, or e-mail her at jpainton@lakeviewhealth.us.

Your participation will help you and others stay clean and sober. “You have to give it away to keep it.”