A Recovery Home Should Be Willing to Learn

I like to think at Awakening Recovery in our women's recovery home and our men's recovery home that we have been for the last 10 years and continue to be a learning and evolving organization. We are peer mentoring driven whether it is a resident, house manager or peer mentor alumni helping to guide a current resident through our year+ long dynamic recovery home process toward graduation and eventually transitioning into independent living.

The residents who come to us typically are unhoused, couch surfing, living in their car or otherwise not in stable housing when they come to us, and also have co-occurring mental health issues and chronic and acute substance addiction. So, our residents often have been trying to get and learn how to maintain recovery for many years, and come to us because they have struggled with sustained recovery and their substance addiction has progressed with accompanying escalating consequences. Our residents also are facing active legal cases, child reunification cases, are coming to us after stabilization from an overdose, involuntary psychiatric hold as a result of their illicit drug and/or alcohol use, or following some other traumatic event or series of events that lead them to us. They are at the end of their rope with no hope, no faith, and full of desperation and we hope accompanied by a willingness to change so they can have a new experience in recovery sufficient to bring about a profound transformation of mind, body and spirit enabling them to build a foundation that is finally sustainable, leading to a happy, joyous and free life in recovery.

That is the hope, but we know especially with our "last house on the block" demographic, that while we can lead them to the lake of recovery set in front of them, we can't make them drink that life saving and sustaining water that will lead to long-term changes that promote a solid recovery foundation. But the work of trying is our lifeblood and our purpose and our mission for those that need help the most and are willing to receive the help. We are willing to go to any length to help someone do the work to bring about that change if they are willing to meet us halfway. And we have a whole support community of people living lives of service because that was what was done for them, passionate about helping the next person find the miraculous life they have found.

Especially since COVID, there has been an escalation in the accessibility, potency, and evolution of the illicit drugs in Los Angeles, especially with stimulants like methamphetamine, opiates like Fentanyl, and high potency THC products. These powerful illicit substances have flooded the LA substance addiction scene and complicated both illicit drug use and recovery. Los Angeles County’s substance information notes that sedatives such as xylazine and medetomidine may be mixed into illicit fentanyl. Medetomidine has been identified locally, although the County says it has not been commonly detected in the local drug supply. Naloxone remains essential for reversing opioid effects; the sedative effects can persist and require emergency care. These powerful drugs also can induce adverse mental health symptoms that even the best clinicians find challenging to initially determine whether those symptoms were pre-existing substance addiction, drug induced, or whether they will be pervasive in recovery for days, weeks, months or years in some cases.

I say all of this to give you a better understanding of the challenges of residents as they enter our recovery homes, desperate, lonely and looking for help to find and build a better life in recovery. We try to provide a sanctuary and incubator that is safe for them to begin their journey under very difficult circumstances, often with fractured or non-existent family relationships and support. Our emphasis on connection and community on a daily basis slowly motivates them to begin to trust in the process as they thaw out and come to from the damage they have done to their bodies, minds and spirits. I've explained it metaphorically to people during tours of our houses that residents come to us starving but not knowing they aren't being fed, then once they start being fed they realize how starving they are, they begin to want to be fed, and then eventually see the benefit of seeking to be fed on a daily basis and helping to feed others. That is the hard, good work our residents, peer mentors and staff engage in daily because they know it is life saving and sustaining for each other, indeed it is a WE program.

The house is a collaborative process too. Everyone in the house whether they are a resident, peer mentor or staff person are just all people in recovery walking a path together, helping one another learn and grow. Honesty, open-mindedness and willingness are the essentials of recovery and in building deep and meaningful connections and community. The bonds forged in the houses are resilient and give all involved renewed faith that together we can recover. Whatever is going on we bring it up, honestly with compassion discuss it, own our parts, and move on to the next thing in front of us to face and walk through. That daily routine is hard, but worth the time and effort to maintain and build a safe home and family environment, creating recovery capital and a solid foundation to integrate back out into the world.

We also work with great community partners for profit and nonprofit that are willing to give access to our residents through Medi-Cal for clinical support with medical, dental, mental health and psychopharmacology for our residents. We also work with amazing wellness and mindfulness partners to give our residents access to those self esteem building activities. Together with the house this provides residents a holistic approach to their recovery with their support community. Learning to live a life based on helping others and being "other thinking" is a powerful remedy not only to substance addiction and co-occurring mental health issues, but as a way of thriving in the world.

I truly hope our public and private partnerships in Los Angeles do the hard work to on a macro level do what we humbly try to do on a micro level in the houses, because if we all work together as a team we can reduce homelessness, incarceration, institutionalization and hospitalization while supporting the family reunification and rehabilitation that we all strive to achieve.