Harbor House

 

I am a client in Phase III. It has given me hope and the opportunity for independent living. It has given me the time that I needed to save money so that I can put a

down payment on a car and the first month’s rent on an apartment. Most important, it is a safe place to stay until I am ready and able to go out into the real world.

I thank Harbor House’s staff for giving me this opportunity and I thank my Higher Power whom I choose to call God. It is a blessing, not only to bHarbor House Services

e here, but to have the chance to write this letter and share with others what being here has done

for me. Learning that in doing the right things, the blessings come. It’s only by God’s grace that

this is happening.

 

Sharing with other guys that are just coming into Phase II helps me to remember where I was

when I first came. Working with my sponsor and participating in group helps me grow spiritually

and to see my actions for what they really are. Being honest and responsible for myself and

others makes me grateful for my life today.

 

In closing, I’ll just say that in the past nine months the experience I have had at Harbor House is

the best thing that could have happened to me. I will say to others: give yourself every opportunity

that is made available to you – you can’t go wrong in my opinion.

 

Don C.

 

 

I am 38 years old and it is a blessing to be in extended treatment sober. I have been using alcohol and drugs since I was 19 years old. Little did I know that it

would turn on me later on in life. Crack cocaine is my drug of choice, along with alcohol. The disease of addiction progressed so fast in my life that I found

myself doing anything and everything to support my habit. Even if it meant hurting the people closest to me. It didn’t matter that I had to steal and lie to people to

get what I wanted, that’s what I did to get high. I asked God to help me and He led me to Harbor House. That was on April 26, 2002.

 

I spent the next six weeks in primary treatment and then transferred into the sixty-day secondary program. Phase III, the new extended treatment program, was

just opening up and I was able to enroll as one of the first clients for the one-year plan. I am closer to my Higher Power today than I have ever been. I’ve set

goals for myself and have already begun to meet some of them. I now have a job and am saving money for the day that I complete treatment. Also, I have been

able to recognize and take responsibility for some of my obligations to my family and others that I’ve hurt over the years.

 

Thanks to God and the Harbor House, my counselors and my peers (that I’ve grown to call my brothers), I am sober today. I have a choice today and it’s good to

be clean and sober. I thank God for leading me to Harbor House.

 

Don C.

 

 

The Women’s Transitional Program at Harbor House has given me a new life! Secondary treatment has helped me develop a basic foundation for living in a

supportive, spiritual environment. I am learning to value financial independence and my return to the work force.

 

As part of this phase of treatment, I have begun to establish personal goals and work on the skills required to reach them. Reuniting with my family means

practicing cooperation, problem solving, and conflict resolution. Managing my home means developing organizational, budgeting and parenting skills. Here, in

the transitional program, we also learn to share responsibilities and to make good use of our time.

 

My most important goal, however, is preventing another relapse. Much of what we do in secondary treatment is directed toward that goal. In addition to individual

and group therapy, we attend in-house and outside AA meetings as well as weekly Aftercare sessions. We learn to look at ourselves honestly and take

responsibility for our actions. Self discipline, boundaries, awareness, and acceptance become part of our daily life.

 

Spiritual growth is the ultimate goal for all of us. We “made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God ...” and we now seek to develop a

concrete spiritual foundation. By learning to recognize and share our feelings, to love ourselves and others as children of God, we are able to find hope, comfort,

and courage as we let go of drugs, alcohol and all the insanity of our addiction.

 

Carlina C.

 

 

The time comes in every person’s life when he or she sees things in a moment of clarity; not as you want them to be but as they really are at that moment in

time. Since I grew up drinking-starting before school age-and in a drinking family, one might say my perceptions were tainted from the outset. When I entered

treatment, my feelings were so masked and my perceptions so skewed by a lifetime of alcohol that I found it literally impossible to imagine a life without

drinking. I certainly couldn’t imagine trusting anyone enough to open up and share information about what was inside me. Quite frankly, I doubt I wanted to see it

myself.

 

Only through my patient counselors, their repetitive reinforcement, and the introduction of the “Twelve Steps” did the concrete shell that was my protection begin

to fall away. It took hours of encouragement for me to trust another person enough to reach out for support. It took longer for me to open up just a little to share

some of the deep, dark, inner self.

 

Today, as I do my Fifth Step, it’s a big step in faith for me; trusting the program one more time. I believe I’ve come a long way from the scared little girl who drank

to cover the “hole in her soul.” I share a common bond and faith with my “recovery family” now. The old masks are becoming easier to remove since Alcoholics

Anonymous takes me at face value expecting nothing more than a look at the sober me, the real me.

 

Pam D-S.

 

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