Rehab group so far

Yesterday marked the end of my 4th week of Intensive Outpatient rehab, meaning I'm a week from the midway point. This consists of attending a group counseling session three times weekly for three hours, during which we may be given Breathalyzer and/or drug screens (urine tests). By the end of Week 2, I was already fourth in seniority; two guys successfully completed the 10-week program while several others, whom I never met, left for reasons which Patricia, the "facilitator," did not specify. Every week a new person, almost always male, joins the group, which now numbers 10 or 11.

When I began only one other guy, Brad, was there for opiates -- the rest were alcoholics. Now the balance is roughly 50-50. I am a "switch hitter" in that I was both drinking and drugging, and a couple others say they probably fall into that category as well. One guy, Brian, is a former heroin user who lately began snorting Ritalin to such a degree that he is now living in a home for recovering addicts. He has a wife and four small children. Another, Greg, became hooked on Oxycontin (also Brad's drug of choice), although unlike Brad he evidently came upon the pills legally. Last week came Tommy, a life-long junkie, and just this week the first girl, whose name escapes me at the moment, joined us. She too is there for opiates.

A few new alcoholics have joined too, both on their second attempt at sobriety. The first, whose name I also forget, had seven years' good behavior, was "working the steps" in AA, and was even sponsoring a few people. But he hurt himself while training for a marathon, and rather than get the injury treated decided to "let nature take its course" by letting the body heal itself. Unfortunately, nature in his case also included drinking. And only yesterday did we meet Doug -- like most first-timers he didn't share much of his story, other than to say this was his second time around.

Relapse is never far from the surface at these meetings. Toward the end of one session, during which the AA guy told about his fall from grace, Brian was noticeably agitated. "I really didn't like today," he said, "hearing stories about people relapsing scares me." It didn't exactly help that he had downed about four caffiene-laden energy drinks that afternoon. Still, he wasn't the only one in the room wondering if the same fate awaited us: confident former hopheads heading blithely into a minefield of our own making, doomed to reconvene in a room like this, a few years from now.