Jennifer Fleming has been sober for 18 months. While it seems like a long time to some, her sobriety is still tiny compared with the 23 years of her life that were ruled by addiction to meth. Because of that, Fleming knows that she needs ongoing support and accountability to keep her recovery on track.
“If I struggle or slip I know exactly where to go,” she said. Where she’ll turn is back to Phoenix Rising, the intensive outpatient treatment center in Aliso Viejo, California that helped Fleming get sober for the first time in her adult life.
“The good thing about Phoenix Rising is the door is always open,” she said. Despite the fact that Fleming has been out of treatment for over a year, she says that Ben Kaneaiakala, the CEO of Phoenix Rising, and his wife, Dr. Alia Kaneaiakala, the facility’s chief clinical officer, still feel like family.
“If I need anything now I can always call Ben and Alia,” she said. “There are not a lot of places like that. Often once you’re out you’re done. With them it’s like you’re still part of the family.”
Fleming, 37, recently left California and moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to be closer to her mother and children. Although she’s no longer able to stop into Phoenix Rising or meet Ben and Alia for coffee, she knows that the support is still there for her, and for her loved ones.
“My children and mother have met Ben and Alia and know they can call anybody there as well,” Fleming said. “It’s really cool.”
Although Fleming is thankful for her relationship with the Kaneaiakalas now, she wasn’t a huge fan during early recovery.
“Ben said I was probably the most hard-headed client he’d every had,” she recalled. However, Phoenix Rising’s approach to addiction through attachment theory helped Fleming understand why she was acting like a defiant teen.
“I could see that I was putting Ben as the father authority figure and everything he told me I would fight. Once I was able to see that, everything from that point on was so much better.”
Doing personal work like that was the most challenging part of recovery for Fleming.
“I think that actually getting off the drugs is the easy party. Recovery, for me, was about dealing with all the trauma,” she said. “I had to address the emotional reasons why I used, and I had pushed that away for so long.”
Although she’s been sober for 18 months and out of treatment for over a year, Fleming is still in an adjustment period with her recovery. Because of her recent move she is looking for a job and trying to connect with the local recovery community. She has been reminded that continuing care is important no matter how far into recovery someone is.
“I’ve realized that it is a transition time,” she said. “I needed to get involved with continuous care. Transition is important and even though I’m super impatient, this is how it is supposed to be.”
Keeping in touch with other people who are in similar situations has helped her to accept that recovery isn’t always easy. That’s why she has begun helping Phoenix Rising organize a formal alumni program to supplement the support that has happened organically.
“I do think it’s important to keep that bond,” she said. “Knowing I can pick up the phone and call people I went through treatment with and we pick up where we left off is great. If anybody is struggling we just pick up the phone and call each other. They are my family.”
Like a family, Phoenix Rising has become a support system that is hard to sum up.
“Ben and Alia and whole program have been a complete blessing in my life,” Fleming said. “I wouldn’t be where I am without them.”
Phoenix Rising provides behavioral health care services in southern California. Find out more at https://phoenixrisingbehavioral.com/ and follow them on Facebook and Twitter
Sponsored DISCLAIMER: This is a paid advertisement for California Behavioral Health, LLC, a CA licensed substance abuse treatment provider and not a service provided by The Fix. Calls to this number are answered by CBH, free and without obligation to the consumer. No one who answers the call receives a fee based upon the consumer’s choice to enter treatment. For additional info on other treatment providers and options visit www.samhsa.gov.
