Marijuana: Vote "NO" on legalization for recreational use and keep it out of the hands of addicts and people struggling to stay sober.
What we must look for when choosing Sober Living
A sober living is designed to help people live a thriving, happy life, without drugs or alcohol. That is their role. They are not supposed to damage emotions, take away self-esteem, insult patients or take money for services not rendered.
A sober living establishment is supposed to help recovering people trudge the road to happy destiny. If that is not the case, we must clearly read the signs, leave or in some cases report them to the authorities.
My own sober living nightmare
When I had a year in recovery I felt like the world was mine. I was in an amazing relationship, had lots of friends both in recovery as well as in the community. My boyfriend at the time who was a drinker, became more and more of an issue with my friends in recovery and this brought a lot of unnecessary tension into our relationship.
One night we had a fight where we were yelling at each other and had clearly drawn the line between his drinking and how that was affecting my sobriety. He had tried the sober way but he decided it was not for him. But for me it was the only way and my friends in recovery protected me and warned I should get away from him if he was going to become a threat to my recovery.
I shared about our big fight in an early morning meeting where I stated that I felt like I would rather drink than lose him. Afterwards, I was fished out of a meeting by a woman who ran a recovery house for women. She told me she could help me, that I should take what I can carry and go to her recovery house. I followed her advice thinking she had a solution for my relationship woes.
After four months of being in this establishment I got everything but the help I needed. I got half of the treatments promised to me, had jewelry stolen, was pushed to get a small paying job when I could have aimed higher. I was paying for psychotherapy and received only the group therapy without the promised evaluation. I was not the only one and the housemother constantly threatened to throw out new comers.
The lack of care in this establishment was stunning to me. Personally I felt that the behavior towards me was designed to both demean me and humiliate me. Though the organization had strong ties to the community and orchestrated a large fundraiser each year to raise money, the services they promised their benefactors were hardly what they delivered.
I lost my relationship, all my friends in the community, ties to everything I ever cared about as well as my sense of self. While I was at the establishment I gained 30 pounds and felt like the ambitious beautiful career minded individual I used to be had vanished.
When I left there I was homeless and if one of my friends had not had a post for me to help her wash dogs for a living to keep a roof over my head, I would have ended up on the street.
Don't let this happen to you or your loved one. Recovery is supposed to be a celebration of life. Anything else is not recovery.
- Alexandra