Recovery Court Building Alumnus Group
Michael West
Michael West tells a compelling story of incorrigibility through recovery and is now turning his narrative into an outreach effort to bring alumni back to adult substance abuse court and help those still going through it.
“I had to take advice from another alcoholic,” Mr. West says of his route to sobriety. “It’s nice to know you’re talking to somebody who has been that route [and hear] you’re gonna be OK.”
He would like to employ that same technique using graduates of St. Mary’s County Substance Abuse Recovery Court. He likens it to being told by someone you know has already been through it, that the light at the end of the tunnel is finally not another train.
Upon his appointment to the St. Mary’s County Substance Abuse Recovery Court Advisory Board, Mr. West accepted the lead in forming just such an alumni group. All alumni are being invited to the Recovery Court’s upcoming May 19 graduation as a gesture of the court’s pride in their success and also as an invitation to assist others going through recovery court.
When moving from the “point of needing help to giving help, that’s how you stay in recovery,” explains Mr. West. “It is ongoing recovery to give back what it has given to me.”
Mr. West is not alone among adult drug court graduates to credit the tough program with saving their lives. Overseen by Circuit Court Administrative Judge Karen H. Abrams, a mandated regimen of treatment and correction is provided participants through a program that runs no less than 18 months and often takes longer to rehabilitate a life.
I want to try to keep alumni around to help people in . . . recovery and drug court. To give support, let them learn from our mistakes, let us be an inspiration to them, so they can see the goals they can reach.
Since attending a national workshop on recovery courts, Judge Abrams has been a fan of the alumni organizations that have sprung up across the nation in problem solving courts in many states. Some of the alumni associations have grown into social groups with family outings and a variety of events. “We were hoping we could find somebody who could take the reins,” she said, “and Michael has stepped up to do it.”
“It’s a good feeling, its not only a good feeling,” Mr. West said. “It’s therapeutic, it’s good for your recovery.”
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