Public comes together for recovery

The Tree of Hope was in full bloom Wednesday night during an annual ceremony for National Addiction Recovery Month, sponsored by the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence.
For the ceremony, NCAAD presented a live evergreen tree that celebrated growth, life and recovery, said Jennifer Smith, a level two preventionist for NCAAD of Middlesex County.
Members of the public and those in the recovery community purchased ornaments for the tree in the name of someone who has gone through recovery, in the process of recovery or in honor of someone who didn’t make it through recovery, Smith said. All of the donations from the ornaments went toward NCAAD’s Information/Referral Helpline.
“Many people think they know about addiction. When they think of somebody who is addicted, they think of somebody at the end of the line. People don’t think about recovery. Recovery happens each and every day all around us. For those folks in recovery, they’ll tell you, it’s absolutely worth celebrating,” said NCAAD of Middlesex County’s Executive Director and CEO Steven Liga, who also served as master of ceremonies for the evening. “An addict is a sick person who can get better and an addict is a sick person who deserves to get better.”
Every year, NCAAD awards a treatment agency for the work they do for county residents, and this year they honored Oxford Houses of New Jersey, he said. The tree was planted in front of the Oxford House in Edison.
“Oxford Houses are [about] one addict helping another addict through recovery. Oxford Houses are homes for people,” Liga said. “In many cases, this is the first safe and sober home that people have had in years. Fifteen years ago, there were just three Oxford Houses in Trenton. Now there are 17 in Middlesex County.”
Oxford Houses encourage individual development and recovery within a community instead of treating them as forgotten patients, he said.
“Here, a landlord says, ‘I’ve got a house for rent in this neighborhood. You’re welcome to live here in this home and it’ll be your home too,’” Liga said. “It’s a very different and respectful model where we can send our family and friends and say, ‘Hey, this is a good place.’”
Randy, a former resident of an Oxford House in Kingston, N.J., who declined to give his last name, said his experience at the House revolved around structure and respect.
“It’s formed around structure. When people come into an Oxford House, their lives have no structure. They’re used to craziness, insanity and they need somewhere to go to take away the insanity,” he said. “Oxford House turned my life around. It showed me how to respect other human beings and it showed me how to start to respect myself. … When you’re sitting in a place full of addicts who have all different behaviors, attitudes and thoughts about life, you have to learn how to live together. … For me it was a transition of learning how to live life again.”
 

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