Weebly · Web viewI would say .5% of relationships in early recovery end in disaster. One person relapses, the other wants to save them and ends up relapsing with them. One person

Kevin DonnellySociology 1010Professor PooleApril 13th 2015

Applying Your Sociological Imagination

I struggled with drug addiction as a teen through my early twenties, specifically

crack cocaine and heroin. I have been sober for about 3 years now, the lifestyle I have

chosen improves my chances of staying sober. I went to a residential treatment center

for 3 months then a male sober living for 6 months, called Balance House. Two months

after being discharged from Balance House I started working there. I am able to provide

a service from a perspective of somebody who has been through what our clients are

going through. Between working here, being active in AA and helping others as much

as I can, staying sober isn’t as difficult as it was my first year of recovery.

The group I have chosen is “Recovering Addicts”, I know them like the back of

my hand, not only because I am one myself but also because I am surrounded by them

everyday. Addiction has been around forever, not till the past couple decades have we

been able to provide treatment to these addictions outside of AA. Addicts are the most

unoriginal people, especially to fellow addicts. What I mean by that is they will manipu-

late, lie, steal, and tell you exactly want to hear. They will go to any lengths to get what

they want, if every addict put half the effort into getting sober that they did into when

they got high, there would be a 100 percent success rate. The “norms” of being an ad-

dict are basically going against every norm in society. Breaking the law, deceiving the

people who care about you most as well as harming yourself and your family. I abso-

lutely obliterated my life and the lives of my family through my addiction, I got to a

Kevin DonnellySociology 1010Professor PooleApril 13th 2015point where I wanted to take my own life because I was so miserable and I did not know

how to live a life without drugs and alcohol.

Unfortunately good treatment for drug addiction is rather expensive, inpatient re-

habs can be as much as 50k a month. Balance House is 3k per month, however insur-

ance does not cover sober living. Conflict Theory comes in to play quite a bit with my

job. The majority of clients we get are from very wealthy families, these families can af-

ford to send their children to the best treatment possible. A lot of them are spoiled brats

and you can tell their parents probably threw more money at them than they actually

spent time with them, this can be a main reason for drug abuse. Most of our guys who

come from less wealthy families have a stronger work ethic and more humility, they are

more willing to take advice because they know if they don’t they will most likely relapse,

their parents will cut them off, not pay for treatment again and they will be stuck on the

streets. I know of not so wealthy people who have achieved sobriety, however without

the cushy treatment centers and top notch medical care, it takes a lot more self will and

determination on their part. One thing I notice is people with rich families have a higher

rate of relapse, they know their parents are their safety net and will keep sending them

to pricey facilities if they continue to screw up, thus they have less incentive to work

hard and stay sober.


Our facility is limited to strictly males, there is a separate facility for women that is

miles away, we did this to reduce fraternization and distractions. People in recovery, es-

pecially early recovery, long for attention and validation. They are all vulnerable and

they turn to the opposite sex for self worth. The result of this is codependency and self

sabotage. I would say .5% of relationships in early recovery end in disaster. One person

relapses, the other wants to save them and ends up relapsing with them. One person

get heartbroken and they end up relapsing because they don’t know how else to deal

with the pain. They spend so much time with each other that they lose focus of whats

most important, their program. The program consists of fellowshipping, connecting with

other addicts, going to AA meetings and working the twelve steps with a sponsor. Once

you lose touch with your program, you're basically out of luck.

The average age group of our clients is in the early to mid twenties. At this point

in these young men’s lives their parents still have hope for them and want to do what

they can while they have most of their life ahead of them, in hopes of treating the addic-

tion at a younger age rather than older. When we get guys in their 40’s and 50’s you

can tell they are more hopeless than the younger ones. These men feel like their lives

are basically over and they don’t have much to look forward to as far as staying sober

goes. At an older age the parents are probably not as supportive as they would have

been 20 years ago, very rarely do we have a guy pay for his own treatment. Most of us

addicts spend every penny we have on drugs and alcohol.


The average race of our client is caucasian, in fact we have never had a black

client. We have had less than 5 of other ethnic groups out of the 200 total men that

have been through our facility since we opened in 2011. I think this is a perfect example

of racial inequality, these white males come from rich families who are able to afford the

best care possible. I know we live in Utah, however most of our clients come from out of

state, particularly from southern states where there is a large black population.

There is a large amount of discrimination towards recovering addicts. When we

opened our first facility in a Cottonwood Heights neighborhood the neighbors did every-

thing in their power to not let us move in. We got nasty letters calling us names, threat-

ened with lawsuits and they even held a neighborhood watch meeting to discuss how

they could prevent our presence. As a result of all this controversy we had to made sev-

eral promises to make our presence more welcome. We couldn’t park in front of other

people’s houses, we could not wave to or talk to neighborhood children and we had to

be especially quiet so we did not bother them. Growing up I was guilty of this same

judgement, I had a step sister abuse heroin when I was about 12 years old. I wanted

nothing to do with her, I thought she was dirty and should’t be part of the family. The

sad thing is she is a great person and knowing what I know now, I should have been

more eager to help her.


Almost every addict I have ever met is an especially great person, we just like to

make stupid decisions. Once we are able to remove the obsession of drugs and alcohol

we can start fixing our lives, self worth and the relationships with those around us. My

whole process of abusing drugs, obtaining and maintaining sobriety has brought me and

my family closer than it ever has. I have a closer relationship with my dad now than I

ever did growing up. My friends today look out for me because we share such a deep

life experience. I have recovery to thank for that. My group is more like a brother hood,

there is a lot of heart break involved but once you get past the destruction and find the

people you have your back, it is something I wouldn’t change at all if I could go back in

time.


This was our sober softball team last year, good group of guys and gals!


Kevin DonnellySociology 1010Professor PooleApril 13th 2015We do “sober activity” every Saturday, this was paintball week!

A couple of our client’s giving back

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Weebly · Web viewI would say .5% of relationships in early recovery end in disaster. One person relapses, the other wants to save them and ends up relapsing with them. One person