Community Living: What RCOSA is all about.

As Funk and Wagnalls defines it, Community is “a group of people living together or in one locality and subject to the same laws, having common interests, characteristics”.

A group of people living together or in one locality-check. Subject to the same laws-or in RCOSAs’ case, rules and guidelines-check. Having common interests-check. Common characteristics-check. Sounds like “The We” part of the program to me.

That was the goal and still is: To provide recovering people a safe, structured, supportive, and enriching community environment.

Within the community lies accountability that seems to be solid groundwork for the newly recovering person to build their foundation. When a group of people live together and march on toward the same goal together, there is a strength that perhaps other modalities do not offer. To actualize the concept of putting common goals ahead of personal goals is the very substance that is recovery. To get outside of one’s own needs while at the same time sacrificing for the common good is a remarkable achievement-and one that provides for a self-directed plan of sobriety.

Many recovering people often allow their egos to direct their path and it will tell a person that they can recover on their own. In many cases, that very same person will relapse, experience increased negative consequences, and then give community living a shot.

I have seen those who dedicate their first six months up to a year of recovery to this type of thinking and living,  and are able to learn and implement this new design for living with much better results- stay sober, deal with their feelings much better, and live a happy and purposeful life.

What is a Success Rate?

This is one of the most often asked questions I receive annually. It is an interesting one. One that can be shaped in any way to justify the means. For example: I heard an inpatient treatment center state that their success rate was 100%!! Amazing. I would imagine that this means that 100% of all of their clients do not relapse while they are in their inpatient program. Well that seems absolutely perfect! In fact, shouldn’t their success rate be 100%? Think about it: Their patients are inpatient-not allowed to leave the unit and go drink or drug. Makes sense to me and it certainly will sound good to prospective families, or any governing body that may need to hear such numbers.

A closer look at the idea of “success rate” is important. For many of the recovering alcoholics and addicts I have had the pleasure of working with over these past 19 years, I bet on Day One of their sobriety, when they lie their heads on a pillow that night and go to sleep clean and sober-some for the first time in many, many moons, they would state that they feel this was a successful day. Therefore the success rate for that newly recovering person is 100% perfect. Should they do the same the following night, again a 100% success rate.

To achieve one day of sobriety is huge; it is the foundation piece of their sobriety and truly a success. When even one recovering alcoholic or addict can do this say-for one week, then it would be logical to state that their success rate for seven days was 100%. Now can you imagine if 12 recovering people did exactly the same for 30 days? How much of a success rate would that be?  It is truly a miracle to achieve any day of sobriety.

Lastly, what if I told you that despite some relapses, the average resident of RCOSA stayed 11 months. I would think that this was really a success rate. Should someone decide to return to using and drinking then we call it….what…a non-success rate? A failure rate?  Tough to call. Perhaps a seed was planted in that individual who decided to relapse and at a later time that seed germinates into what for them ends up being their foundation for sobriety.

I see failure as that of not even trying and a success, as someone trying to learn this new design for living.

Food for thought.

Steve G.

Why Anonymity?

Well, for one thing, “Because AA’s Twelve Traditions repeatedly ask us to give up personal desires for the common good,”  P184 12/12.
For another, ” We are sure that humility, expressed by anonymity, is the greatest safeguard that Alcoholics Anonymous can ever have.” P187 12/12.
And how about this: because if someone breaks their anonymity at the level of press, radio, TV, internet, and any of the dozens of social media outlets available- and they relapse and begin to make a complete ass of themselves, then their decision to be a spokesperson for AA gives this movement a really bad name.
And lastly, wouldn’t it be a shame if people had not the opportunity to experience the true humility and spiritual growth behind practicing such a principle as anonymity?

Upon arriving in a fog to this scene we call recovery, merely a blur of a clue as to what I was really getting in to, I naively thought that the “lash” of alcoholism  was the only reason I was here.  I was quick to learn one early lesson: I was here because I had a thinking problem. I had a diseased personality. My natural instincts had been warped into such a state that my only coping mechanism was to obliterate each present moment by drinking. by running away from the “Here and Now”. Alcohol was but a symptom. Great to lesson to learn early on.

Then I had the experience of bragging to my sponsor who I had just seen at the old Mustard Seed (On Wells off of Division-in the old firehouse): A rock star!!!
Well thank God my sponsor took the time to break me in half by ripping in to me about how I had just violated one of the most sacred aspects of AA: Anonymity. He went on to say that I had no right whatsoever to inform him (or anyone else) of who I had seen at the meeting. He added that I better learn and remember to respect peoples’ anonymity at all costs, and that my ego needed to be deflated immediately.

It was at that point that I began to learn and accept the wonderful power, the necessary humility, and the spirituality behind the concept of anonymity.

I see more and more people in recovery who are diagnosed with co-occurring disorders, or as we used to call them “dual diagnoses”. More now than ever, recovering persons have to manage both their recovery from addiction/alcoholism, as well as their medication management plans and secondary diagnoses.

As if dealing with the loss of our lifelong friend is not enough, we now have to deal with emotional instabilities that are not always associated with our chemical addictions.

Once the drink and drug are removed, many are left with feeling feelings, dealing with emotions for the first time clean and sober. Not an easy task.

Many crusty old-timers will say, “There is no need for medication-AA and the 12 Steps have all of the answers”.  Shortsighted or naïve-perhaps. Ignorant or close-minded- I would say yes.

The reality as it appears today is that a majority of people entering recovery will have to deal with co-occurring disorders and be prescribed medication for that. That requires increased diligence, increased acceptance, and most definitely increased discipline. This requires help. From psychiatrists, from family members, and especially from the support system they are involved with.

At RCOSA, currently 50% of our residents are diagnosed with a co-occurring disorder and are prescribed medication. Another 25% exhibit symptoms of such disorders and refuse treatment.

I remember when we began our mission back on October of 1992, it was pretty clear to me that this demographic would one day be as dominant as it is today, so we readily accepted clients who were “dually-diagnosed” and on medications. Of course, as it remains today, much time had to be put into the maintenance of the database for the ever-changing world of assessment, diagnosis, and medication management.

I see far too many recovering persons “playing doctor” and taking themselves off, adding and/or manipulating medications without their doctors direction. Not a good move for a recovering alcoholic or addicts especially if they are new to recovery.

Please folks, always consult your doctor first before making any moves. Your life and your recovery may depend on it.

Steve G.