John Piippo: Treating the Beast of Addiction

John Piippo: Treating the Beast of Addiction

Running and Recovering

I vividly remember a warm late spring day at my brother’s house in Atlanta about two decades ago. My son Ben was just discovering the joys of running at age two, and he was running down a hall full tilt toward my nephew’s closed bedroom door. 

I caught him just before he did a face plant into a door panel. “Ben, don’t! That door isn’t going anywhere, you know!”

Ben just grinned and put his head on my shoulder. I carried him to the living room and pointed to some blocks on the floor. “Build a rocket for us, OK?” Then I went to the kitchen to refill my coffee.

In a few seconds, I heard little footsteps going full tilt down the hall again. I left my coffee cup and sprinted toward the noise, but too late. BAM! Ben had indeed successfully executed the face plant into my nephew’s closed bedroom door. (Remarkably, there was no blood.) I picked him up just as he realized the door had won.

Helping Ben learn to run was a matter of catching him when he hurt, and encouraging him when he made progress. 

It’s like that sometimes with the homeless and addicted. One of our neighbors who regularly visits our Resource Advocate Program, Donny, has been working with us for at least 16 months. During that time, he’s been sober save for one day last winter. When Donny introduced himself to our RAP “Angels” (if you saw them in action you’d agree the nickname fits) he had already “graduated” from living in a dumpster to prison to being homeless in a shelter. The Angels helped Donny to get housing, dentures, and approval for Social Security over the next few months.

In a way, recovery involves a series of choices where you decide not to hurt yourself. You can self-inflict healing with certain choices. Donny has been on that path of choosing to get better for years. Yet not too long ago, the Angels had to escort him out of the RAP office because he came in intoxicated. 

But that was last week. This is today. 

We believe that Donny will show up sober again, and soon. We believe that, especially as Donny is reminded he has the freedom to choose, he will continue to make more choices to heal than to hurt himself. 

Our job is simply to catch him when he hurts and to encourage him when he’s making progress.