- Drugs
My recovery journey began back in ’92, when a friend picked me up off the streets of Hollywood and encouraged me, maybe even conned me, into going to detox. I went to detox, and the lady took one look at me and said, “We don’t have a bed, but, you know what, you’re going to die if you go back out there, so we’re going to give you the couch.” During the first five days I started to walk out of there. I had a crack pipe in my shoe, because I went in there half loaded. I found it and pulled it out, and I was going to use it, but I didn’t. I was in the restroom, and somebody knocked on the door and the lighter wouldn’t work, so I wound up not using it.
Divine intervention, that’s exactly what that was. I went back to the meeting and was inspired by the guy who was talking. It was a participation meeting, so I stayed there and went over to a sober restaurant and volunteered to cook for the homeless. I then went to a rehab program and said, “I’m going to do 30 days, and I’m going to leave.” I stayed there for a year instead of 30 days.
While there I took a test there for a literacy program, as my reading level was 4th or 5th grade. A guy in the literacy program took me under his wing and started teaching me math. I also became heavily involved in the operations of the program. One day my mentor walked up to me and told me I was going to go to school and that it was the only way I could redeem my past. I was resistant to that idea and talked to a friend about it. She asked me what else I would be doing for the next ten years.
I started by getting my GED and going to community college. I thought I wanted to study mass communications, but it hit me that maybe I should continue with substance abuse treatment. My friend reminded that people connect well with me and told me I should do what I love. I gave up the idea of making a lot of money with credit card machines, and I started a two-year substance abuse course. I completed this course but opted out of getting my associate’s degree and went a four-year college instead. I received my bachelor’s and master’s degrees and started a recovery program. It started off with 6 beds, and now we have about 24 beds. When we started off, we almost closed four or five times. The thing that saved us was that we did some work with a few people and organizations that referred to us.
I started that program, because I was complaining that clients were not actually getting served, because there were too many clients and too few counselors. Someone told me to open up my own program, since I knew so much. I called my sponsor and was talking to him about that, and he agreed. I went and did it, not knowing what I was doing because working for a state-funded program is different from working with private pay. I care about what I’m doing, and I think the quality of service and counseling reflects this. I fell in love with caring in a way that was conducive to my own recovery. Focusing on treatment every single day countered the lifestyle I had been living before. A person like me who is not just addicted to drug but also used to that lifestyle needs something to take the place of that lifestyle in order for addiction to stop. You also have to really love recovery, so you don’t go back and love what you used to love. If you don’t really love it, you always have the chance of getting uncomfortable with it and loving what you used to love again.
I do believe the essential element to being a good counselor and therapist is being a good person that has an ability to connect. There are a lot of good people who don’t have that ability. It’s important for me to be genuine in what I’m doing and to be honest in what I’m doing. How I convey that to my employees is so important, because that’s something you can’t fake with employees, and you can’t fake it with clients. One of the things I’m trying to do is break the cycle of people going from rehab to rehab by really getting the client to invest in his or her treatment over long periods of time. Monitoring is very effective for some people, because it prevents them from thinking they can safely use and get away with it. I continue to learn a lot of things in the process. I’m so thankful to have great people in my life that back me up but also tell me when I have crazy ideas. Life and recovery have brought me to this point where my facilities do well and my reputation continues to improve or to be known.
I am most proud of my 10-year-old daughter. My family is in New Orleans, Louisiana. I’m the only one who ever moved away. My daughter was born in California, and my wife is Japanese, so I have this daughter who is fluent at reading, writing and speaking Japanese and English and knows some Chinese and Spanish She’s in a gifted program and goes to two schools, one English and one Japanese. She plays guitar, and she practices karate. She does a whole lot of stuff. If there is anything that she picked up genetically, it’s learning to love what you do.
I am also proud of the fact that I have sustained a new life that I believe in. We have a program that has a great reputation. I have a staff that’s just amazing, and I love them. I have so many things, I live a happy life and I’m cool where I am. I’m not searching for anything. I believe my quality of service is the way it is, because I am in touch with everything. People have asked me about expanding, but I said I’ve done all the expanding I’m going to do. I once heard this minister talking about building churches, and he said, once he starts to take his hands off the church and the work at the church, it starts to slow down and begins to lose people. I have to keep my hands on my work at all times in order for it to grow. I always want to keep my hands on it. If I take on too much, I’ll get a lot of money and a bad reputation, and I can’t afford a bad reputation for many reasons. Others might care about making a lot of money, but I’m in this field to stay. I don’t care about any other field, and I’m proud of the way I take care of my clients.
If you are just finding recovery or re-discovering it, be honest with yourself. Find good support from a sponsor or mentor. Accept the directions of that person, and trust that they are going to help. Don’t stop listening, once you feel like you’re better. Stay within the structure of their recovery, and accept it as a new lifestyle and accept the mentors within that new lifestyle. Live within the instructions of your mentors.