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D.A.R.C (drug and alcohol recovery counselor)

beengerman

beengerman

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Joined
Aug 13, 2010
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New England
As a recovering addict, or even a current addict, how do you feel about becoming a recovery counselor?
Not even so much a counselor, just working in that particular field. Is that something you think you could be around the rest of your life?
As a drug addict you put so much time and effort getting away from that stuff and then you make it your career?
I don't know if i could handle it, even though i have a great interest in becoming one, i just don't know if i could.
It seems like it would be a constant trigger, or maybe it would make life easier.

I'm interested in hearing what you guys think and if anyone has any direct experience dealing with this. appreciate it, thanks.
 
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it would be hitting pretty close to home, i dont like to shit where i eat, in this sense i agree with you, i don't think it would be wise being reminded of it every day, but then again it could be pretty empowering to be sober and occupy your time doing this instead of being the one at rock bottom, you could be a good influence to a person in a very vulnerable point of their life. im not sure. good thread, but not sure if it is in the right spot. but regardless, you would have to be secure with yourself/
 
thanks. i feel the same. its hards to say. Either going to be very rewarding or it just won't work. i don't think theres an in-between for it, and I'm not sure if its a good idea to jump in and find out.
 
TDS seems more appropriate, but good topic

i dont know...on one hand, if someone is truly trying to quit, they need someone to talk to and to talk to them that truly understands what they are going through. the only person who has any business being a DARC is a former addict. I would like to share that if I ever get truly clean.

on the other hand, addicts suck unless we're high. i dont know if i could stand talking to a bunch of morose whiny asshats all day
 
I feel sorta like you guys, would be hard to stay clean and have any kind of job related to drugs or the use of them.

However, I am thankful that I did a lot of stupid shit (and continue to do so ;)) because I can spot someone else doing it. Honestly, how many of you guys around here can spot pin-point pupils and the itchy nose on someone a mile off? Or the guy that seems to be in a huge hurry to get no where with pupils the size of dinner plates.

My point, as a user/former user you can tell that someone is not only on something, you know exactly what that something is. A lot of us here aren't the types to smoke a little pot then raise hell and leave if someone kicks out a bag of coke or another "hard drug". We're the other side of the coin, the ones that took a few swims over in the deep end of the pool and know what its about.

I'd love it if I could make a job out of helping other beating an addiction and making something of themselves. But I don't think I'd be of much help since, well shit, I haven't managed to control my own yet! Plus, with the policy towards drugs in my country I don't think I could work within that system anyway since it doesn't stand for the principles that I hold dear.

Last but not least....the triggers. Just coming on BL is enough of a trigger.....;) I don't know if I could listen to some guy yammer on about how he goes through bags and bags of whatever a day as a regular thing.. I mean all that'll do will having me thinking about the good old days when I mixed about 4 or 5 things together and drank a few beers on top just to catch a decent nod. If anything I'm a poster child of what not to do.

I think I'd have to end up somewhere in the middle....maybe one of those guys that makes the rounds speaking at public schools. You know the type; The no bullshit guy that tells it like it is. I could never be the boring fucker that gave a speech everyone slept through.

For now I try to do what I can locally with the friends/family. You know the deal...spread HR advice, advise people not to mix or take too much of stuff, clue them in when their "street knowledge" of something is mostly wrong, help friends/family trying to quit/taper, and teach CPPs how to CWE their pain pills because the doctor has them munching down grams of tylenol a day. Stuff like that..:)

When I got really bad last year (meaning worse w/d of my life, combo of benzos and opiates) I told myself this: I'm going through this hell to learn a lesson, and someday, maybe I'll save a life because of it. That kinda stuck with me and is a big reason why I've managed not to get strung out since I gave up an every day habit (I do use sometimes still but not often, maybe a few times a month).

Sorry about the long post...told myself I wouldn't take anything this week but a friend just handed me some xanax bars and hydro 10s for a ride to the store. Not one to turn down free goodies and they're starting to hit me, got like no tolerance! Gotta love those 3 month breaks!!! :D
 
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We can spot anything drug related a fucking 100 miles out man. i hear you on that one. and just like you said , I'm still struggling myself. am i any position to be telling other addicts what to do?
 
Dude I know this a bit off topic but I gotta share this story;

I had a friend with a nose for weed like a doberman, one day back when I was 16 or so he and I had been trying to find a bag of smoke all day and the entire town was dry. Well we're coming out of Wal-Mart and my friend says "I smell weed....". I scan the parking lot, and way off in the distance I see two guys in a car passing something and say "I see weed.....". We ended up walking over there because we were that desperate and asked if they could find anything. They said; "Nah man, but you can have the rest of this". We said thanks, they said take it easy and drove off.

They ended up giving us about half of a huge joint, I broke it open to make sure there wasn't any funny business in there and it turned out to be some of the best smoke I'd ever had up til that point in my life. We ended up getting two joints out of that "roach" :)

Back on topic;

Sometimes I feel I am in the position to say something, for example when I see my friend who's eaten say 10mg of xanax in the past 4 hours about to rail 4 big lines of old school Opana ER because he thinks they're like percocets (yes I know idiots that snort percs) I think I have the right to step in and prevent that particular friend from dying. I had a hell of a tolerance tail end of last year and oxycodone + Opana + xanax nearly killed me.

Another example: Little brothers 16 year old friend comes to house party and starts chomping down any number of pills because his friends are handing them out and afterwards heads for the 5th of Jim Beam. Again, in that situation I think I have the right to step in and prevent him from doing something stupid.

You may be an addict, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't not say something because you feel ashamed. We live in a world where your own grandmother can overdose off her medication because some quack doctor didn't know the combination of them could kill her. I'm not telling you to go out and play doctor but by all means if you know something isn't right step in and say something. We make mistakes to learn from them after all. :)
 
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Used to be a mental health counselor, not quite the same thing, but... Personally, I think getting an objective view how people fuck up their lives with different drugs can help a person stay sober. Things you don't notice, or don't want to notice, while using become obvious when you're on the "other side." I would hope seeing people get better and move on with their lives would be inspirational too. When a counselor has never dealt with personal addiction, the patient/client can always say "you don't know what its like!" When you can relate and empathize, that's a big advantage.
 
I've thought about this. And I think I'd be a pretty decent drug counselor. But as others have said, it would be hard not to use. But then again I've come across quite a few drug counselors that either use recreational amounts or are addicted to something.
 
I've thought about becoming a drug counselor more than once, especially when I was sober. When I was at my first halfway home a few years ago, the head counselor actually wanted me to become a counselor. He said I'd be good at it since I was pretty good at helping others out in groups and etc... Either that, or I was just really good at talking out of my ass :|

At this point in my life, hell no I don't want to be a drug counselor. Things have changed a lot since then, I was 17-18ish at the time, 21 now. Maybe one day if I ever sober up completely again, I'd reconsider it.
 
Well, I was an addiction counselor. For a number of years actually. I ended getting clean about 10 years ago and got a Master's degree in counseling and went headlong into the field. At first it was really invigorating. I had the insight to be helpful to many, because I was a recovering addict myself, and got a top notch education to be good counselor in other ways (and I've got the student loan bill to prove it!).

But as the years went on, it got trying and old. I also began to experience a really insidious thing that eventually led to me leaving the field altogether. Since I was looked up to, and literally required by the state licensing board to be "of good moral character" and not "practice while impaired (chemically, emotionally, or otherwise)", I began to feel that a bit of a moral spotlight was shining on me at all times. I felt like I couldn't really be myself or talk about the problems or thoughts I was having. Sure I had outlets to go to but by that time I really wasn't able to get out of that rut and I eventually ended up doing the unthinkable and started using again. I left the field as soon as I could but it sucked. Sucked really bad.

I am still licensed to practice but I don't anymore. I've moved into a completely new and urelated field.

To the OP, it wasn't a constant trigger and it didn't really make my life better after the honeymoon wore off, it just ended up painting me into a corner that I couldn't find a way out of clean. So a ton of shame followed, but I wasn't the first and certainly won't be the last to do what I did.

I haven't really been able to get any of the zest I had for recovery back in my life that I had from getting clean a decade ago. And now I'm sorta feeling things out and wondering what it all means. Was it worth it? Yes. I loved getting the education I got and have some ridiculous experiences and unbelievable stories that I'll never forget. But it was very hard being in that position and basically "having to" live a morally sound life (by the status quo's standard) and not really feeling able to be a regular person with crazy thoughts, urges to use, and frowned upon habits.

Helping people through counseling was a funny thing. It felt really good sometimes, but at the end of the day it really didn't matter all that much that I was a recovering addict. Non-recovering counselors did just as good of a job as I did. It's weird, but I'm still glad I did it. Who knows, maybe one day when I give a shit again, I may go back into the field.
 
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