September is National Recovery Month. It celebrates the gains made by those in substance use recovery.

Larry Jay Johnson joined LCSNW in March 2022. He is a Behavioral Health Program Supervisor in our Multicultural Community Services (Portland) district. Here he shares his experience in a personal essay. 

The End

My story begins in my mother’s backyard in Portland. Those were the days when I struggled with addiction, eluded my probation officer, and lived in a tent. One day while I was indulging in my addiction, my next door neighbor suddenly jumped over the fence, closely followed by the police.

Right beside my tent, a fight broke out between her and the officers while I was getting high. This filled me with intense fear and paranoia. So I did something I hadn’t done in a long time — I prayed. During that prayer, something inside me shifted, and it changed my life. 

When my neighbor was taken away, I made a decision: I would go to a place called Stay Clean, a culturally specific treatment center. My goal was to figure out how not to go to jail. During my stay, I heard the message of recovery.  I listened to what they said about getting better and it started to make sense. In the last three months of my time there, I found a connection to God, and I began to absorb the teaching of the counselor. 

Upon completion of the treatment, I found the courage to face my parole officer, who had been looking for me for nine months. Understanding that I could go to prison upon facing her, I took God with me and for the first time in my life I witnessed a miracle. I walked in with fear and walked out free.