How I Got Excited About Life

So I just celebrated two years of sobriety two days ago and it feels amazing. I can’t even put into words how grateful I am for my life today. Two years ago, my life revolved around getting that next high. To be quite honest, life was miserable. Today, I can honestly say that I am excited about my life.

Today, instead of being a slave to my addiction, I get to devote my life to helping other people find the happiness that I have found in recovery. I get to come to workat a teen treatment center and be a role model to teens struggling with drug and alcohol problems that are just like I was. I get to show them that it is possible to get clean at a young age and have an awesome life.

I look at life in a totally new perspective than ever before. I try to view everything as an opportunity for change rather than an obstacle or a tedious task. I get to appreciate everything in my life, even the simple things like the trees and clean water. I never even thought about those things. I took everything in life for granted. I always wanted everything handed to me on a silver platter. And, no matter what was handed to me, I was never happy. Nothing was ever enough. I now realize that everything in my life is a gift. And, without my sobriety I probably would have lost everything that I have.

Anyway, I am just so grateful for all the gifts that I have received through recovery. I am excited about life today. I have never been excited about life. I never knew a happiness like I have today. Life is truly beautiful.

Elizabeth M

I Quit Smoking Cigarettes

I quit smoking cigarettes after inhaling them for 14 years. I miss them every day and I probably think of them every other minute at the moment. It is a challenge and one that I didn’t even anticipate making. One day I basically hit my bottom with cigarettes. My body felt like it was starting to shut down. I would get headaches everyday from smoking, which then made my body tense, which then gave me no motivation or oxygen circulation, which then the list goes on and on. The bottom line is, every part of my being was starting to get affected by this disease of addiction.

Working at a teen treatment center that deals with addiction has been a blessing for me. I am aware that any addiction has an underlying psychological motivation. For me, to let go of cigarettes is painful for it feels as if I am letting go of the love of my life. I understand this sounds silly and yet this is what the young adults at teen treatment centers with drug and alcohol addiction feel as well. It is strange. It is strange to love something so harmful towards us. It’s strange to be ok with poisoning ourselves for so long and then one day decide that it’s not ok to do that anymore. The thing is I would never stop smoking if my body could handle it. And yet as a responsible adult I have to be aware of the choices I make in life. I am not even angry that I have to stop, I am only extremely sad that I can no longer continue.

Anonymous

Learning How to Have Fun

Learning how to have fun in sobriety is probably one of the most important things I’ve had to learn over the last 32 months. I started drinking as a pre-teen at age 12 and as nobody ever intervened I quickly progressed into using every other drug available. My drinking and using continued for 15 years until I got sober at age 27. As you can imagine, every idea that I had of what fun was involved drinking and using.

Based on my experience, when teens begin drinking and using at such a young age, we don’t develop a strong sense of what we like (or like to do). Everything that I did as a teenager (and well into adulthood) involved drinking alcohol and using drugs, so in getting sober, one of the most frightening thoughts (for me) was that I would never have fun again. As it turns out, that thought couldn’t have been farther from the truth.

Thankfully, the drug treatment program that I went through incorporated “mandatory fun” as part of the program. We had to go out with the group every week to learn how to have fun in sobriety…to learn that fun is possible without the use of mind altering substances…and necessary. Not having had any healthy or positive hobbies up to that point, it took some time (and trial and error) for me to learn how to have fun and what things I like to do. Interestingly enough, there were some hobbies that I had developed as a teenager (such as writing and photography) that I still enjoyed, it just became a matter of learning to enjoy them in a sober state. There are many things that I’ve since learned that I like (which I never would have imagined liking before).

Looking back into my active addiction as a teenager, the less I remembered about any given day or night is how I determined the amount of fun I had (the less I remembered, the more fun I must have had….obviously!) My ideas about fun now, in sobriety, are much different. I enjoy being present for each moment. The fun of everything is here in the moment!

Working In teen Treatment

I have been working at Visions Adolescent Treatment Center for about one and half years. I began my career as a Program Aide at the residential facility, and am now a Classroom Supervisor at the intensive outpatient program. Visions has helped me learn much about teen addiction and the teen recovery process in both types of treatment setting.

At the residential treatment program my job was to supervise the teens, help them self-administer medicine, and assist them with daily activities (i.e. school work, lunch etc.) I would be with the teens at every waking moment… literally. It was very enjoyable yet stressful at times. Sometimes they showed lack of respect toward authority. However, for the most part they are all great kids. After talking with them, and learning much about teen addiction I began to understand their lack of respect and rebellious actions. To some of them we were “adopted parents” for lack of better words. Thus, we were the vectors for the kids anger. I suppose I would be on edge too if I lived in house with the 10 other teens, and had someone telling me what I could and could not do at all times. I began to further understand and respect then as time went on. I left the Visions residential program with a clear picture what it was like to live at teen treatment centers, and a almost clear view of what it is like to be a teen addict.

Currently, I work at one of the Visions teen intensive outpatient programs as a Classroom Supervisor. Here my job is to make sure the kids are working on things they are supposed to be and not looking at inappropriate things on-line, helping then with school work, and disciplining as necessary. I thoroughly enjoy working here, because I get to interact with the kids more. Here they have more freedom, and are able to live a more “normal” life, meaning they get to live at home, drink coffee, go on dates, etc. Generally speaking, they are in better moods here. Also, they appear more “real” here, and not doing/saying things just to escape the clutches is inpatient. I love seeing the kids grow and progress in the their recovery.

Being a witness to both sides of teen treatment centers has given me much insight and respect for teens who are suffering/recovering from teen drug addiction. I cannot imagine being addicted drugs as a teenager. The kids have given me a window into that world. Furthermore, the staff at Visions Adolescent Treatment Center are all great roll models for the kids, and 99.9% of the time calm, cool and collected dealing with any issues. I am pleased and honored to be working for such a remarkable establishment.