Assignment Ex addicts who worked in addiction treatment, then relapsed

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jon_georgian

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Hi,

I'm looking to get some input from anyone who has been in the above situation.

It happened to me - I got off of heroin, then after a couple of years an admin position in an addiction treatment service was advertised. I applied, being totally honest about my past, and got the job. Possibly because of my past, in fact.

I did ok for a couple of years, and progressed to doing client work. I started using codeine, and recreationals, and it eventually came on top. I was asked to leave.

I know I'm not the first person this has happened to (I personally know of a couple of others), but its a much avoided topic in addiction treatment. There are very few articles online (almost none - try searching! takes hours!) and it is not an area that has been well researched by academics.

My experience, and the experience of others I have mentioned I know of, is that we were asked to resign, and given no support.

I would like to write something about this, possibly on my own blog, or see if any addiction news sources (possibly DDN) will publish. Before I can consider doing so, I need as much input as possible, from people who have been in this situation.

So, if this is you, a couple of sentences saying how your employer responded when they found out. Did they offer support? Did they sack you? Were you treated fairly?

Please PM me, or reply here. I will post anything that is published. All info will be treated with confidence, and I will not ref to any specific stories without express permission of the individual.

It is important to say that I do not neccesarily think that it would always be wrong to sack someone for this (or always right...). I think some cases could probably be managed, others maybe not. I'm just interested to see how services treat their fallen comrades. I'd really like the good and bad versions.

I would ideally like to concentrate on the UK, but all replies from any country are welcome.

Thanks, and i hope you can help. It could be useful for others who may yet suffer a similar fate, if this issue was spoken of publicly.
 
If any mod thinks this would get a better response in one of the recovery forums, please let me know, btw. Thanks
 
I'm afraid I can't offer up any experiences, but I wanted to comment to say that I think this is a very valid topic that definitely deserves discussion. I can't believe you weren't offered any help when you were fired. I can see the organization thinking that you were all too close for you to receive treatment to get back on track there, and I guess they have to put the well-being of their clients first, but they should at least have referred you on to another service that could help.

If you do write something up, please post where it end up here :)

Are you based in the US?
 
Akerman said:
I'm afraid I can't offer up any experiences, but I wanted to comment to say that I think this is a very valid topic that definitely deserves discussion. I can't believe you weren't offered any help when you were fired. I can see the organization thinking that you were all too close for you to receive treatment to get back on track there, and I guess they have to put the well-being of their clients first, but they should at least have referred you on to another service that could help.

If you do write something up, please post where it end up here :)

Are you based in the US?
Click to expand...

Thanks for your response. No, I am not US based.

I'd imagine its a tricky issue for services. I'm not going to come up with excuses on their behalf, but I can imagine that it puts them in an awkward position. This does not make it ok for them to not have adequate policies in place to deal with such circumstances.

Anyone else with any experience? Still be really interested to hear from you...
 
It happens frequently. I used to be an Instructor at the Navy Drug and Alcohol Counseling School. We screened prospective military personnel applying for the school and emphasised the potential hazards for someone recovering from addiction to relapse. The inherent nature of the work environment is sure to trigger many well intending recovering/clean folks into relapse. Clinical Supervision/Preceptorship offers a preventative solution that can flag burnout and other pitfalls on the addictions treatment community.

My guess (i am not and have not been in recovery) is that some may experience a form of ptsd. Hell, sometimes i wonder if I have ptsd from years spent counseling.
 
This is a really tricky situation for both the institution/service and the relapsing counselor. The very thing that makes you a good person for the job (understanding from the inside rather than the outside of addiction) also makes you more vulnerable. The above recommendation for tight clinical supervision seems key.

the worst outcome from this would be if this prevents you from working in the field again. It seems to me that if we accept that relapse is a very common part of addiction and that recovery strategies are taken very much more seriously when coming from someone that actually has experience using them that preventing good counselors that have relapsed from working in the field is shooting ourselves in the foot.
 
This is an extremely interesting topic.

I regularly attend 12 step meetings and am pretty involved in recovery community..and I stay involved even when relapsing. I will definitely try to gather some experience, strength and hope on this topic.

Thank you for sharing. And your blog.. I would be interested in the link, if you felt up to sharing. If not, no hard feelings :)
 
Yes I was a peer support specialist at a mental health place for the county and i relapsed and ended up in jail with a felony and fucked my whole life up now. I was dumped a therpists job onto me and totally unqualified for it and the stress of the job and the loneliness of my new living situation was too much for me and i was to fill clients med boxes with bags of pills and I relapsed. so what is it you need to deal or cope with?
 
Ironically I experienced a huge amount of pressure and disincentive from the recovery community when I was in practicum to become a clinician (not being in recovery myself or an active user of any substances). I remember a larger than life man wearing a Dashiki making this statement to a class of about 40 of us.

"Those of you who are in recovery... may relapse. Those of you dont have an addiction, may develop one".

The attrition rate was over 70% at that school which should suggest the majority seeking this profession are not appropriate for this line of work.
 
Hello Jon! I myself have been in a situation like this. Though I am not a certified drug addiction counselor or specialist, I do have a strong desire to help other addicts. It was because of this desire that I created my recovery based website. I was doing pretty good for several months. However, as time progressed I began to notice that I had stopped posting and maintaining my site for a day here and there. For me, the day here and there made all of the difference and I quickly relapsed because I slacked on the program of helping other addicts that I had established.

Thankfully, my employer never found out about my slip up (at the time I was working at a carpet mill and trying to build my site). However, since I have started freelance writing I have decided to give it a go again and rebuild my site so I can answer my calling of helping the still suffering addict.
 
This is such an important topic- I'm glad you are exploring it some more. When I worked at a needle exchange, this was an issue that came up every so often with colleagues. One really interesting and important guide that helped our organization is called Harm Reduction At Work. You might find it interesting?
 
I used to attend NA and was friends with a lot of recovering addicts who worked at a local treatment center that I had been a patient at a couple times. One of them relapsed and was kicked to the curb just like you said, no help offered or anything. I think it was fucked up, I mean I know a using addict obviously can't work in a treatment center, but at least someone offer to get this guy into treatment himself, or something. How they just "let him go" was fucked up. The problem with those people is once they get a few years under their belt they think the are immune to relapse and forget how using life was. When this guy relapsed they saw that shit up close, I don't think they thought they were immune anymore but someone should've offered help.
 
Very interesting topic, and one I have often thought about when reading about ex-addicts in positions of such. Another thing I often think about is these crime bosses and gangsters that deal drugs, the higher level ones. Don't they get addicted to heroin and lose it? How do they maintain a lifestyle of family, friends and dealing...

anyway, I am wondering about the OP. So after being an addict on presumably Heroin, you then relapsed on Codeine? How? I was under the impression that Codeine would basically NEVER work again...
 
I have experience in what you are talking about. I have to say i dont agree with much of the language you use, such as 'addiction', 'relapse', nor do i agree with the stereotype of the 'addict-in-need-of-help', and i find the whole idea of 'treatment' troublesome at best. That is to say i dont consider myself to have 'relapsed'. I spent a number of years in abstinence based programs and drug and alcohol work. After four years of abstinence and 12 step programs it was those things that became the problem for me. Not to say that i dont think that four years of abstinence was not needed and had i not had it i would be worse for wear, but i do know that abstinence is not for me. I started using drugs again, my DOC - opiates, and i reached a point where it wasnt sustainable and i went on to pharmacotherapy. But the unsustainability of my drug use was not due to some deep seated 'issue' or wanting to escape, but more due to the socio-legal environment within which i used, namely prohibition and the stigma and criminality and high priced illicit drugs that ensue from prohibition. Anyway, i dont consider my drug use to be a sign of failure in any way and i am happy, just as happy if not more happy than when i was abstinent. I have since completed a degree, begun post grad study and maintained a job, all while using drugs. I do occupy a position of considerable privilege that makes it easier for me to do this - i am white, middle class, educated, able-bodied, neuro-typical.

I guess that is the crux my understanding of addiction. I do consider 'addiction' to be a problem, not of the self, but rather a problem that through its perpetuation throughout medicine, social work and psychology and other community health spheres, obscures the very social dimensions that make it so, namely a neo-liberal order which displaces responsibility from the social and lumps it onto the individual; drug use becomes a problem, not of society, or society's disregard for illicit substances and the people who use them, nor is it an issue of class and the ability or inability to afford drugs, but rather it becomes a problem of the self. This is the conclusion i have come to having worked in drug and alcohol practice where the majority of our clients are working class or live below the poverty, and may or may not be homeless. A majority of clients come from ethnic minorities. Many of our clients dont drink 'that much', some do. Many of our clients dont have problems with drugs and alcohol as much as they are not afforded the luxuries that allow them to use drugs and alcohol 'successfully' and/or are positioned in society in such a way as that their drug use is more visible than other people's use.

For example, a colleague of mine can use heroin in their home, and they can afford to buy bulk amounts. This means the likelihood if them being seen buying drugs and/or them being caught buying drugs is lower than the person who can only afford to buy enough drugs to get them through that day and who are forced to be on the street scoring three to four times a day. This also makes it easier to hold down a job blah blahblah. Maintaining, or having recognition of the need to maintain a 'middle-class' persona, means that my friend is not recognised as a 'drug addict'. This means when i go to the chemist to get my dose i wear makeup, dress presentably, always am up to date with payments, talk politely, make a point to talk about work. All this means i am given four takeaway doses after having been on the program for two months. Many other people, who are unemployed despite have been on the program for years and the fact that they may be more stable than I, might only be afforded two takeaway doses. Of course such far fetched leniency wouldnt be afforded even to I had my prescribing doctor not been a private doctor. Government run clinics are renowned for their hard and fast rules. Not everyone can afford private doctors.

Anyway, i have ranted enough. You get my drift - there are many hidden social aspects to addiction that make it problematic to say the least. So much so that i have given up on the term.

That said, i have responded to this because there are a number of harm reduction issues that arise out of the situation you describe that run counter to the very principles upon which harm reduction is built. Take Angela for example, tonight, and many other nights, Angela has suffered potentially serious complications/overdoses from injecting drugs. Each and every time Angela thinks 'if only i could call an ambulance'. What would happen if Angela called an ambulance? She would go to ED and she would tell them that she was injecting drugs and they would assess her and then call in a person from the drug and alcohol unit. That is the drug and alcohol unit where Angela works. In this case, calling an ambulance would mean Angela outs herself as a person who injects drugs. This could possibly mean the loss of her job, her kids, her mortgage, oh her takeaway doses that allow her to get to work on time but that doesnt matter cause she doesnt have a job anyway. And that is all to say Angela survives the incident in the first place. Her chances of survival of course would be increased if she did call an ambulance but to not call an ambulance would be to risk the very things that she values. These are the very things which one would say are central to life itself. Should Angela not be entitled to those things?

So, what is the problem here? Is it Angela's drug use? Some may say so. But Angela has a job, uses, sometimes more than she can afford, but hey dont we all? She is a mother, a daughter, a sister. She maintains relationships. Above all, she is happy with her life and her drug use.

Where is the problem?

The problem lies with a society that criminalises and discriminates against people who use drugs. The problem lies with a service that serves not the individual but rather operates regardless of the individual/’s desire/agency/wellbeing etc. This takes agency away from the individual and pathologises their drug use with disastrous consequences. The manner in which the disasterous consequences play out is also double edged – Angela calls an ambulance and has her job compromised and her life subsequently destroyed, or she doesn’t call the ambulance and suffers death and/or serious injury. This goes against every principle of harm reduction. In this case, Angela, a worker in the drug and alcohol service, is actually afforded less care than a client of the service. This is all because she chooses to use drugs.
 
herbavore said:
It seems to me that if we accept that relapse is a very common part of addiction and that recovery strategies are taken very much more seriously when coming from someone that actually has experience using them that preventing good counselors that have relapsed from working in the field is shooting ourselves in the foot.
Click to expand...

What's this? A facet of the drug war that doesn't make sense ?!?!?
 
worked in treatment settings twice, i found myself envying my clients next i'd try to use now and then bartering with it, next as always the substances took over, full relapse
 
I worked for an outdoor adventure program for 'at risk youth' teaching them life skills and how to reintegrate back into society. It was basically their last stop before being tried as adults in the penal system. I worked 4 days on and three days off. The kids were mostly gang members and repeat felons who had been in and out of the juvenile penal system. Long story short, after confiscating drugs again and again and being beaten down (physically, mentally, and emotionally) nearly every day on the job I relapsed. I began chipping on my off days. I felt it wasn't right for me to be helping others when I also needed help, so I told my boss and resigned. My addiction and subsequent recovery coupled with my previous work experience was what got me the job in the first place. However, much like you, I was offered no help and was sent on my merry way after letting them know what was happening to me. It was a shame, that although I had spent the better part of a year helping others turn their lives around, find employ, go to meetings, and reintegrate into society, I was not helped out at all and basically left to fend for myself without so much as a second glance.

I'm very interested to hear what has come of your findings. Please post the final paper and/or IM me as I'm really interested in this. Best of luck.
 
I'm sorry it didn't work out for you, but it is no real surprise. I've always thought that if you haven't suffered or experienced things yourself, it is very hard to be a good counsellor. I have dependency issues which mean I would never be allowed to be a counsellor - yet I know, in my heart and soul, I'd be a bloody good one! I just know the disastrous, soul destroying horror of addiction and dependency, the simple, honest fact that I require amphetamine to control my depression, would have no effect whatsoever on my abilies to listen, understand, sympathise and empathise with someone troubled by addiction. If anything, it would make me more hard on any client I cared for, to avoid them suffering.

I think the problem with authorities who run such programs is that they assume anyone with a 'drug problem' will be too sympathetic and soft with clients.... or so weak willed and weak minded, they'll be swapping and dealing drugs and perhaps spend their time getting stoned with clients instead of helping them. People who take drugs cannot be trusted! What a load of crap...

I'd push this further, and say that any psychiatrist (IMO the most loathesome, lazy, greedy and incompetant practitiobners of medicine) are totally unqualified to treat anyone with depression, if they've never had a taste of it themselves.Same with panic attacks - a bunchof arrogant, coceited wankers (without prejudice, ahem!)
 
I go to a methadone clinic and my counselor relapsed. I didn't see her for 4 or 5 months before she got in trouble, because she wasn't ever there when I came in. I'm on the highest phase so I only come in every 2 weeks and get 2 weeks of take-homes. I'm supposed to be seen at least once a month, esp. because they are supposed to keep track of our other prescribed pills and I'm on a benzo. She ended up wrecking, and then taking off when the police came and they had to use a tazor to get her to come out of the car.
 
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