02 Sep CRI-HELP CRIER: FROM THE ARCHIVES
AND NOW FROM THE ALUMNI CLUB
(TAKEN FROM THE DECEMBER 1972 ISSUE, MISTAKES AND ALL)
It was about 19 months ago I kind of stumbled into CRI-HELP’S office and had a long talk with Bill and decided that I’d give it a try since in all the times I tried to quit it never worked. I didn’t believe that this would either but I was getting pretty desperate. Four days later I showed up with some of my things to begin my 13 month stay at CRI-HELP.
I had been drinking and using every imaginable drug for 12 years, (the last several years strung out on heroin), so I knew I was wasting my time.
It was the first or second week of the facility’s existence so there weren’t too many people (about 5) and very little of anything else.
I had to kick a habit the first week in the house so I wasn’t feeling very well but spent the first few days loading and unloading a truck with beds, mattresses, wall lockers, and dressers and then set them up. That’s probably what got me through the first days because I was too busy to think about how 1ousy I felt.
I, like everyone else at the house was attending meetings daily and I went as a spectator for entertainment and fought the program as best I could. I fought and argued with Bill about the rules and probably became quite a pain in the neck and before I knew what was happening I was a resident director.
This new appointment put me in quite a cross with my fellow residents since I had been fighting the rules and now I was supposed to uphold them. I began learning the necessity of the rules and also that I didn’t have all the answers. I started paying attention at meetings and began to learn how I could begin to build a foundation that would enable me to stay clean and sober one day at a time! For the rest of my life if I choose.
In those early days I didn’t really want to stay clean and sober, not for the rest of my life, at 25 years of age I figured that would probably be a long time and I hope it is, which is something I didn’t want when I came to the house.
Since leaving the house I’ve held a job down and have been living in Sun Valley so they haven’t completely gotten rid of me yet.
I can often be found at CRI-HELP and expect to be around for a long time to come. I’m also the secretary of a meeting held at CRI-HELP on Friday nights.
The past 19 months haven’t been a bed of roses and my stay at the house didn’t necessarily make it easier, but without the house I’d probably be under a bed of roses.
And so I remain, Jack.
We love having you around and we want and need your encouragement. So PLEASE KEEP COMING BACK.
THE HOUSE