The Void of Addiction

The 8 to 12 hours a day that those in recovery previously filled with habitual patterns in order to acquire the means to continue their use.

Amy’s Story of Addiction (Our case study)

Amy grew up in a Northern Suburb of Chicago, attended Catholic school, and embraced music with all of her heart. In high school, Amy became even more involved in music, starting a band and recording and writing songs; Amy also became exceptionally social and famous and even got to party a few times with some bands in downtown Chicago.

After graduating with honors and picking a premiere creative arts school in Chicago, Amy moved into her first apartment with her best friend. She started college, majoring in Music Production and focusing on songwriting.

After a rocky first year, an uncanny amount of stress, and the lack of a support system, Amy’s partying turned into more substance exploration, starting with alcohol, then cocaine, then a few pills, followed by heroin, meth, and fentanyl.

Christmas Miracle

During Christmas of Amy’s sophomore year, her best friend moved out because the apartment was unlivable. Amy told her family she was sick for the holidays and had blown threw all the money she had saved to score her fix. By New Year’s, Amy had utterly isolated herself and now only spent time with other addicts. Her apartment was also now the place in which Amy started “Dating” clients to make money for her addiction, so she and her new boyfriend could get high.

By March of the same year, Amy was now stealing, scamming, prostituting, and hustling 8-12 hours daily in hopes of scoring her fix. Unfortunately, she had also been sexually assaulted, domestically abused, and had two overdose episodes.

Amy’s life was in chaos.

Amy’s Recovery

After about six years of severe opioid use, Amy hit rock bottom when she realized she was utterly alone by choice. Her family had set firm boundaries and denied her visitation to her daughter, but also made a lot of ultimatums and demands, and lacked empathy for Amy’s disease of addiction and substance use.

In a desperate moment, Amy called Sangha House, hoping to go to a treatment center, and while Sangha House is not a treatment center, we connected her to a local program to start her treatment.

Luckily, 13 months of treatment later, as well as two return-to-use episodes, Amy finally found a reason to stay sober. Because SHE wanted to change. She wanted to be happy, to stop her and her family’s suffering, and to be able to be the parent her daughter needs. She also wanted to get back to her passion, Music.

Amy lead daily meetings and even yoga at the treatment center. She speaks to and teaches new joiners of the center, sharing her journey with the hope of helping others to find their “Why” for recovery.

Now a sponsor in Narcotics Anonymous, and Alcoholics Anonymous, Amy is more engaged in life and her recovery than ever before and can’t wait to graduate to a sober living facility and start growing.

Dope Times Two

What Amy learned during treatment hit home. While she was an addict, Amy “Worked” 8-12 hours a day to get her needs met for her fix. While the metric of her success was money to pay for her habit, mentally, something else was happening that was much stronger and harder to break because with her daily hustle came another chemical, dopamine. When we complete tasks or chores, or even finish the dishes or get the groceries, we feel relief knowing the task was done; A mental checkmark on a task list, if you will, and this reaction is human nature; with success comes the chemical reward, dopamine. So for six years, Amy was not only getting high from heroin but also a natural high from dopamine, reinforcing the feeling of success from earning for her habit.

How does one possibly fill a full-time job worth of time a day that also provides a sense of satisfaction that isn’t slipping back into addiction?

Filling The Void of Addiction

While meetings, spiritual practice and meditation, work, and even physical exercise can help with a lot of Amy’s Void of Addiction, that still leaves several hours for Amy to keep herself engaged, sober, and focused, and that’s precisely why Amy chose Sangha House as her recovery home.

Amy can now focus on her creative pursuits, recording music, writing songs, and making that album that she had always dreamed of. Amy uses the “Attic,” Sangha House’s in-house recording studio and sound lab. Amy has access to all the recording and production tools she needs. She has access to classes on becoming a better sound engineer and singer, and even how to start her own business, market her skills, and grow on social media.

All while staying sober and filling her void of addiction with the passion of her life: Music.

Are you ready?

We’re looking for painters, writers, jewelry makers, sculptors, ceramics artists, filmmakers, fabric artists, graphic designers, photographers, singers, songwriters, producers, DJs or any other people who are passionate about a creative pursuit.