The Mental Health Menu of Recovery

I worked in addiction treatment for over three years, and I met a wide range of people. After you work there for a while, you start to see patterns. Certain people with certain backgrounds, substances of choice tended to have certain personalities. This treatment center I worked at was expensive as hell, so you either needed to have great insurance or be rich to go there. Because of this, we had quite a few young people with rich parents, and they were often difficult to get through too because they’d been spoiled most of their life, but there was one kid I got through to, and we’ll call him Chuck for anonymity purposes.

Chuck was constantly starting shit with other clients, and he was typically the center of any drama going on while he was there. He came from money, and he was accustomed to always getting his way, and he expected everyone to bend to his will, and that included therapists and other employees like myself. Well, I don’t play that, so I put Chuck in check every time he got mouthy with me.

A lot of the therapists I work with were amazing, but none of them in recovery from addiction, so when they had difficult clients, they’d have me do one-on-ones with them, so Chuck’s therapist brought him into my office for a chat. She brought him in and told me that he was refusing to take any of the suggestions after leaving treatment. He said he wasn’t going…