Aaron R.

The first day I met Aaron was his last day before PHP. Being new to the job and still acquainting myself with all our clients, I approached him and struck up a conversation. Quickly I learned that we were mutually fresh out of college with identical majors. Though belonging to two different political parties, we had a quick non-obtrusive sparring that political science majors do when they meet each other than runs itself more like an inventory check than a real debate.

Our next encounter was at his room right before lights out at PHP the next day. I was making the last hourly checkup of the night and he and his roommate were last. They were sitting across from each other reading with the thick smell of fresh baked cake in the air. His roommate immediately offered a slice.

I sat and spoke with them for a couple minutes. They were the youngest men at PHP. Aaron was in on a preventative step. Like me, he drank a bit in college. The difference was that he couldn’t stop when he got out. He realized it early and brought himself to treatment so he couldn’t hurt anyone else.

We talked about the nature of addiction, about the off-switch that most people are equipped with and the genetically lower thresholds that most addicts have to override that switch. Anyone can become an addict – but for most people here it’s genetically easier to get there. We talked about how we both have addiction running in the family, and how lucky we both were to be able to walk away from our demons while still young.

Aaron is my daily reminder of the all-too-human core inside everyone at Lakeview. There are no monsters here. Take the drink or drug away from the abuser and you have an injured yet completely recoverable human. Keep the drug or drink away and you have God’s greatest miracle: Rebirth.