All the years wasted
If we've ever dare tasted
This dark place called addiction
Where we lay in our affliction 

We'ed all move our feet
For something so sweet
This new life in recovery
Promises to be lovely

When we think there's no other way
He gives us another day

Another chance
One more last dance
To live the right way
With promise of a brighter day

Towards one goal
To climb out of this hole
Never to walk in shame
Never to be the same

His promise to be near
Or to ever live in fear
If we just take him in
We'ed begin--to see clear

Always thankful to Sacred Heart
For this brand new fresh start

Thank you Sacred Heart

-Bobby

Hello,

My name is Michelle P. and I am/was an addict . . . 

Substance has had an impact on my life because multiple things have happened. Like me having negative thoughts, stealing, depression and etc. It also has an impact on my family members because I am hurting them plus getting worked up and worrying about me. It has a impact on my community because I can/may go out stealing and hurting and harming other just to go out and catch that next high for the day.

It all started when I was 16 years old and I found out I had Lupus. I was sick in the hospital one time because I broke down. 

After a couple of years, I graduated High School in Detroit, Michigan in 2007 at 18 years old. I then went to medical assistant school and received certificate in 2008.

Yes, I did I had it all. I got better, I got a boyfriend an apartment and I already had a nice truck because of my parents. I was actually doing great I had it all plus a little more. I loved my life.

I was on pain pills like a normal person. Then all of a sudden one day things start to go down hill. I was having my days because of my Lupus. I was already stressing over my relationship, my job and mainly my health. One thing after another thing hit, I start being in the hospital twice a week and then the pain pill taking start getting worse [the pain and sleeping pills I was trying for different types of pain I was having]. 

Most of all the pills that I couldn't stop taking were a high does of Vicodin. I was only suppose to take 1 pill every 4-6 hours and as needed. But I stopped that and I was taking 1-3 pills every 2-4 hours. I was over medicating myself.

The sleeping pills at first was 1 pill every night for sleep. Then I doubled the dose and started over medicating myself and taking a bottle of sleeping pills without even remembering it. I even woke in hospitals because of it.  

Now realizing that now of this pill popping and OD-ing isn't good for me and has me feeling worse than when I first ever started taking these pills. I came to Sacred Heart Rehabilitation Center.  

Sacred Heart has helped me to realize that my life for me and my family is more important than a bottle of pills. It has also helped me to understand life is more clear. How to cope with things, take action and don't care about everyone else and their feeling and what they think. How to not be angry about everything.

Sacred Heart has really changed my whole outlook on life. It's guiding me to a much better future to live and be happy until the day I die. 

I am so proud of myself. I'm going to be a whole new new woman the day I walk out of Sacred Heart Rehabilitation Center.

I'm going to pass this place on to better many more lives just like it has done mine.

If I had never came here I would just be home taking more pills which will lead to the next worse thing which could of been shooting up somewhere or found dead out in the streets or in my bed. 

I'm so happy this chance has come to me and I took it and ran with it.

Now I'm going to walk out of here and better myself for me and my life. I'm also going to make my family proud of me again and be the best role model for my brothers, sisters, niece, and nephew. No one will have to worry about me again, I promise.

I loved this program. It taught me so much I can't wait to use what I know when I get back out in the world and start living my life again!

Thank you Sacred Heart!

Love, Michelle P.

Fear… “This short word somehow touches about every aspect of our lives. It was an evil and corroding thread; the fabric of our existence was shot through with it”.  From the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous page 67.  
 
Should you avoid treatment because of these fears? As an internal Employee Assistance Representative I see these fears in the faces of those so desperate for help. When employees come to me with substance abuse problems, they seem real hesitant to disclose the full nature of their problem. Aside from stressing the concept of complete confidentiality with a person, I try to alleviate the fear of job loss right from the start. I explain to them how we have safeguards in place to protect them from termination. I then point out how their health care covers the issues dealing with treatment for alcohol and/or substance abuse.  Hospitalization for substance abuse is treated like any other illness that may befall our employees. It is only by the voluntary signing of a release of information form that a supervisor   should know the nature of a person’s hospitalization. Most employees are returned to the same job they were performing before hospitalization. Exceptions can be made in the case of safety sensitive jobs such as Captain of an oil tanker, railroad engineer, school bus driver etc… in which case you would be placed in a comparable position until deemed appropriate.
 
On a personal note, when I disclosed that information in September of 1987, I too had those same fears. Not only did I retain my job but I was a much better employee as a result of treatment. Furthermore, I was able to return to school with an enthusiasm that led to job promotions and better career opportunities.
 
Alcoholism and other drug addictions are potentially fatal diseases if left untreated.  Meanwhile, employees in desperate need of substance abuse services are afraid to seek help because they fear negative consequences from their employer. They may fear losing a license, failing to get promoted or even termination. However, in light of the proven case histories of the consequences in store for an active substance abuser, treatment seems to be the best choice. I urge anyone with alcohol or other substance abuse problems to seek the available help. Sacred Heart has a reputation in the recovery community of providing that help. It is my hope that anyone abusing substances step from the bridge of fear to the shore of faith. Treatment works!

--James Skelton, UAW-GM EAP, ADAPT, JTR REP, Powertrain Warren

Growing up I had a missing link. That link was how to love myself. It disabled me with problem solving. As I grew older my problems were solved with substance abuse. The roller coaster ride began. Clean, straight, clean, straight.

With time it passed. First, I sought help through AA. The pieces to help me still hadn’t been found. AA had let me down. My next approach was outpatient therapy. Sessions were made. Medication was tried. The pieces still hadn’t connected.

December 11, 2007 will be the day to be never forgotten. My despair that day seemed hopeless. The love and support my family provided did not provide that link. How could it? I was the one with the disease. I called a friend and begged her to drive me to where her daughter had treatment. I showed up at Sacred Heart.

In my stay at Sacred Heart challenges were there at my most vulnerable time. Some were good some were horrible. Each member in the house gave me my links towards recovery. That towering wall finally got knocked down. I finally could say “I love Sonia”.

My goal will be to continue with therapy and go back to AA. I have been blessed with a family that has loved and supported me.

Thank you Sacred Heart and thank you to all the clients.

Sonia A.
Age 51

The holidays are often difficult times for clients and their families. All the pressures of holiday celebration, that come to bear on average folk, are even more pronounced in the lives of early recovering clients and their families. The pressures are many and may include everything from limited resources to traumatic memories. The recovering person with a family may be faced with increased levels of guilt and shame (fellow travelers of addiction) during the holidays. If you add to that hard financial times, the holidays can become a time of deep despair and even relapse.
 
Recovery from addiction is a family business and including family members in every aspect of treatment makes it much more likely that the business will be successful. One of the difficult hurdles to this inclusion of family in treatment is the idea that exposing, particularly children, to the recovery process is in some way unsavory or lacking in moral standing. This belief is often expressed in not wanting children to know anything about the how the addictive process unfolded even after the recovering person has started on the road to health. Statements like, “I would never take my kid to an AA or NA meeting” or “kids don’t belong at a methadone clinic”, suggest a separation of family and treatment that we at Sacred Heart would like to bridge.
 
This holiday the Sacred Heart staff of the Adult Residential Opiate Treatment Program held a party for the children and other family members at the Richmond facility. The party was made more festive by the participation of several community organizations as well as numerous unaffiliated individuals. These groups and individuals contributed approximately seventy wrapped Christmas presents ranging in price from five to fifteen dollars making it possible for every child of an Opiate Treatment Program client to receive a gift.

The gifts were under a tree decorated by both clients and Sacred Heart staff and when children arrived they were given the presents by clients who volunteered to be elves. There were treats and wrapping paper every where. Newborn babies were seen sporting new blankets and knitted caps. The blankets and hats were made by children who were given an explanation of the importance of the idea of the Gift as a spiritual part of the holiday festivity.

The message that the Sacred Heart staff of the Adult Residential Opiate Treatment Program was trying to send is that this program is family friendly. A client coming to us is welcome and so is his family. The idea that you can’t do recovery alone means that the staff of Sacred Heart, the community at large, your AA and NA bothers and sisters and your loved ones will join you in this journey. You are not alone.

-Sacred Heart Therapist

Methadone replacement therapy works because it fulfills three basic requirements of any program of recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. The program, to be effective, must
(1) reduce access to drugs and alcohol. It must provide a
(2) supportive structure as well as make the client
(3) accountable to dependable persons other then themselves.
 
The first requirement is that access to drugs (in this case opiates) is limited. A methadone maintained client loses his craving for opiates because the methadone sticks to the opiate receptors in the brain and won’t let any other opiates get by them. While the methadone is playing spoiler, it activates the receptors thus reducing the desire for opiates (sort of like when you don’t want to eat because you are full) at the same time that it prevents the sickness of opiate withdrawal from occurring. This process occurs slowly so that the intoxicating effects on the nervous system are minimized. In this way, the first requirement of a program of recovery is fulfilled as far as opiates are concerned. Other drugs and alcohol continue to have to be avoided to prevent active addiction on top of methadone maintenance. The primary goal for all other drugs of abuse and alcohol, while in methadone maintenance, is complete abstinence. As a client is stabilized on methadone, opiate intoxication no longer occurs. This leaves the client, who greatly misses the intoxication effect, vulnerable to the abuse of other drugs and alcohol to replace the loss of his usual opiate high.
 
The second requirement of a program of recovery is supportive structure. An addict whose life has been dominated by chasing drugs needs to replace the old order of things with a new order of things. In a methadone maintenance program, structure is maintained by the need to acquire the methadone as well as a schedule of mandatory therapeutic services. In the early stages of recovery, the structure is implemented by requiring that a client attend the clinic daily to pick up the medicine. The intensity and frequency of therapeutic services is high for the first 90 days to a year. Participants may be required to attend groups and individual sessions weekly, but as the client is in the program longer services may become less frequent. At first, the methadone clinic may be the sole source of structure for the client, but as time passes other sources begin to emerge such as deeper involvement in the 12 step program, work, healthy exercise and family involvement. As normal life structure begins to develop the methadone clinic reduces its role in the client’s life. The ultimate goal of a therapist is to do away with the therapist.
 
The third requirement of a program of recovery is accountability. A new client needs to find ways to make her self accountable to dependable outside authorities. The nature of recovery from addiction is to realize that when an addict is left to his own devices he will not be able to keep himself straight. He needs guard rails. The methadone clinic provides these guard rails by providing a regular monitoring service. Clients are tested for drugs and alcohol so that when the clinic staff and the client say that the client is free of illicit drugs, the evidence is objective.  The client is also required to bring in any prescriptions for evaluation in order to prevent the client from abusing licit drugs. It is much harder to use or abuse drugs or alcohol when you are in a relationship with an objective and observant person and that person has the ability to manage positive and negative rewards to keep you on track.
 
For any program of recovery to be successful these three aspects of a TX program, limiting access, providing structure and accountability must be implemented along with encouragement to find a more effective philosophy of life.

-Sacred Heart Therapist

I should begin with a confession. My first contact with methadone maintenance therapy was when I was invited two years ago to participate in the development task force that created the Sacred Heart Opiate Treatment Program. I suspect that that the reason I was invited to participate in the task force was to provide a sobering influence on the committee since I was brought up in the 12-step abstinence model.
 
Secretly, I felt a like a poison pill. Up until this point in time, “I HAD ALWAYS SEEN METHADONE MAINTENANCE AS UNACCEPTABLE. THE TRUTH IS I HAD NEVER REALLY GIVEN IT MUCH THOUGHT BEYOND AN OFF-HAND DISMISSAL.” I began my work on the task force by plowing through research study after research study. I was really looking for evidence that the methadone medication-assisted model was not good practice. I didn’t find it. The preponderance of evidence supports methadone maintenance. There is solid evidence for the practice of methadone replacement therapy that has accumulated over a very long period of time that can be found even by an old skeptic like myself.
 
The evidence for methadone maintenance therapy shows reduction in illicit drug use, criminal activity, needle sharing, risky sexual behavior, suicide, and overdoses as well as improvements in health conditions, productivity, retention in therapy and cost-effectiveness.
 
The body of evidence that supports these conclusions is based on matching the client to the appropriate treatment and providing that client not only with medication but also structure, accountability and therapy.
 
My second contact with methadone medication assisted therapy was when I was asked to be the program therapist for the Sacred Heart Opiate Treatment Program. I discovered in the clients of the Sacred Heart Opiate treatment Program confirmation of the evidence provided by all that research. “EVERYDAY I SAW MIRACLES. MEN AND WOMEN, WHOSE LIVES HAD BEEN RAVAGED BY HEROIN OR PRESCRIPTION DRUG ADDICTION, BECOMING HEALTHY, GOING TO WORK AND TAKING CARE OF THEIR FAMILIES.” I saw these individuals at various stages of their recovery.
 
Pregnant women whose maternal instinct was to protect their babies, but who could not escape the overwhelming power of their addiction, stabilized on methadone, bringing them and their fetus into a medically controlled support system.
 
New clients would come into the clinic beat down by their disease after many fervent attempts at quitting. Most had undergone more than one detoxification episode only to return to illicit use because they never really felt normal without some sort of opiate augmentation in the same way that a diabetic never really feels normal without insulin.
 
Truly, methadone maintenance is a program of progress not perfection, but through medication assistance and persistent therapy, science is transmuted into life.

-Sacred Heart Therapist