Former addicts helping others find hope in rehabilitation

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ENID, Okla. (AP) — By almost any measure, Jack Werner, owner of A to Z Inspections of Oklahoma City, is a successful business owner. But, when Werner speaks in public, whether it's about his business or his charitable efforts with Rotary International, he begins with a simple, and to some, shocking, message: "I am an alcoholic."

Werner, who spoke recently at Enid Rotary Club, is among a growing corps of people in the community speaking openly about their struggles with addiction, in hopes of helping others in need of recovery.

In a society where addiction remains a taboo topic, Werner said he's passionate about sharing his story, because he wants others to know there can be success after addiction.

"With anything we do, that we believe is probably the single most positive thing we've done — which for me is stopping drinking — I'd think most of us would want to share that with others," Werner said in an interview with the Enid News & Eagle.

Werner's struggles with alcohol started early, when he left home at the age of 17. By the time he returned from the war in Vietnam, Werner said he knew he had a problem.

"I'd always known I was an alcoholic," Werner said. "I never could drink just one or two. Why would you only drink one or two when you could just keep drinking — that was my attitude."

He told himself he'd quit drinking when he turned 35. But, 35 came and went, and the birth of three sons, and the drinking remained.

"My mental excuse was, 'I'm a guy, I was an Airborne Ranger, and guys just go to bars and start fights,'" Werner said.

He said things finally changed for him when he was 37, and his first daughter was born. The first Father's Day after she was born, Werner was in jail after a bar fight.

"I thought, 'she'd be ashamed of her dad,'" Werner said. For him, that was the "rock bottom" moment that led to recovery.

He said too many people don't embrace that opportunity for recovery, because social stigma continues to be a barrier to reaching out for help.

"I think it's so important to talk about this in the open," Werner said. "Mental health issues and addiction and things like this were things you swept under the rug and didn't talk about."

Scott Van Krevelen, founder and director at Vans House sober living community in Enid, said it was his own struggles with addiction that led him to help others.

He started drinking in high school, and escalated to abusing drugs for pain management while playing football at the University of Oklahoma in the late 1960s.

Because of alcohol, drugs and injury, Van Krevelen never made it into a game with the Sooners. And that, he said, led to a downward spiral.

"The depression and shame I felt helped turn me even more to drugs and alcohol," he said. "That combination of drugs and alcohol was going to be deadly for me."

Van Krevelen said he managed to get off the drugs while serving as a police officer in Enid for seven years, but continued to rely on alcohol to handle the stress of the job.

By 1985, Van Krevelen had moved on, and moved up, in spite of his addiction, to become vice president of a company of 150 employees in Oklahoma City. But, eventually, the effects of addiction caught up with him.

"I was drinking and doing so many drugs, I couldn't do my job," Van Krevelen said. "The board of directors was asking me where I was."

Already on his second marriage, and facing the loss of his job, Van Krevelen finally embraced recovery.

Not long after, he started working in drug and alcohol treatment programs, and in 1997 founded Vans House with his wife, Sally.

"I became so much more personally involved with our clients, I knew immediately this is what I wanted to do with the rest of my life," Van Krevelen said.

Travis Morgan, owner and operator of Quest Transitional Living in Oklahoma City, said the "vast majority" of people involved in recovery programs are there because they've struggled themselves with addiction.

"If they're working with people in recovery, chances are they've been there, and they understand what it's like to be desperate and alone," Morgan said. "It's hard to relate to someone who's not gone through recovery."

Originally from Enid, Morgan, like Van Krevelen, started on the path to addiction with drinking as a youth.

It started when he was about 12, sneaking liquor from parents' bottles with his friends, Morgan said.

"Their parents were gone, so we would get into the liquor cabinet," he said. "I realized early, even in high school, I didn't have the ability to control it."

But, in the particular world view of an addict, Morgan said he resisted the obvious connection between his drinking and his problems in life.

"People who aren't alcoholics, or addicted, you look at them and see their life is out of control, and it's pretty obvious why," he said. "But when you're in the midst of it, it's hard to believe that could be the cause of it. It's hard to believe something like that could beat you. In the insanity of it, you believe every time is going to be different.

"It sounds ludicrous now, because the cause was so obvious," Morgan said. "But, at the time, my life was just out of control, and I couldn't understand why I was headed in that direction."

Morgan said he resolved himself to a short life, thanks to his drinking.

"I thought I would make it to 25, maybe," Morgan said. "I was just shooting for that."

Things didn't change for him, he said, until he was allowed to suffer the consequences of his drinking.

After his last arrest for public intoxication, as he was sitting in jail, his family came to a decision. They were done bailing him out.

"They told me, 'We aren't going to get you out until you get some help,'" Morgan said.

When his family came to get him from jail, his stay at home was brief. The next day, they put him a plane to Jackson, Mississippi, where they'd signed him up for inpatient treatment, followed by a transitional living program.

At 22 years old, he said he saw for the first time a possibility of life after addiction.

"Once I entered treatment, and saw there was a chance, that there was some hope still, it turned my life around 180 degrees," Morgan said. "It was a fresh start when you thought you were pretty much doomed."

Rodney Fowler, Hope Outreach Transitional Ministry house manager, said he, like Morgan, found his path to recovery in a jail cell.

"Recovery started when I became capable of recognizing I needed to change my life," Fowler said. "I was in a jail cell in Garfield County, and I realized this wasn't working for me."

Before recovery can begin, Fowler said most people have to experience their own "rock bottom" moment — a place where they're forced to be honest with themselves and the changes they need to make.

"Going to jail saved my life," Fowler said. "Going to treatment saves people's lives. You need to reach that point of clarity, and if I'm doing something to keep someone from reaching that clarity, I am doing them an injustice."

"That's a tough process, because it doesn't feel good," Fowler said, "and we tend to avoid it."

But, he said, until someone reaches that point for themselves, recovery programs are unlikely to have much effect.

"Recovery has to be that person's choice, and until it's their choice, there's no more resources that are going to help that person," Fowler said. "People often try to keep their loved ones from having to face uncomfortable consequences of their choices, but, sometimes, loving them means letting them suffer those consequences of their own choices, so they can realize they need to make a change."

Parents, in particular, often try to shield their children from experiencing the consequences of drug and alcohol abuse, Fowler said.

"It's really easy for parents to do that, because they don't want their children to go through something unpleasant, but you may just be keeping them from realizing the change they need to make," he said. "Allowing someone to go through those unpleasant consequences may be the thing that saves their life."

Fowler said he's had to become comfortable with sharing his own story, in hopes of leading others to seek the help they need. In turn, Fowler said that process has helped him.

"There was a time I wasn't comfortable sharing it, but it's important we do share it, because it helps with continuing sobriety," Fowler said. "When you're helping other people, it helps you remember what you've been through. Helping other people is an essential part of continuing recovery."

Van Krevelen said helping others walk that difficult path, from addiction to recovery, is its own reward.

"Seeing people be successful is the most rewarding thing in the world," Van Krevelen said. "To come from a terrible situation, and go on to have a productive and sober life — it's incredibly rewarding to see that."

Information from: Enid News & Eagle, http://www.enidnews.com

An AP Member Exchange by Enid News & Eagle.