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Southside Recovery

Southside Recovery 

Southside Recovery was a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in Southside Ohio. After spending months at OSH with no progress I wanted out. It can't really be described in words what it is like to live in a room with 3 other guys that are completely insane, in an activity room with 15 more, then the courtyard with another 20-30. I think the only way to get through it is to accept that their behavior is out of your control.

Anyways I was able to coordinate my release using going to Southside Recovery as a bargaining chip to where they offered a free room as long as you give them time and are added to their waitlist. Eventually I got approved and spent the first time in a car in three months. It was a mini-van nothing special, but again it is difficult to describe the world outside of a mental facility during first release. There is an overabundance of information and detail coming in where previously there was stagnant grey walls of depression. In order to get to the recovery ranch. I had to be dropped off at one of their core locations and wait until the later afternoon to be transported. This became something like eight hours of sitting in a quiet open room watching 1990's game shows, it was torture. The only positive was that I was finally able to smoke cigarettes for the first time in months. At OSH all they have is nicotine gum, but because of how much I told them I smoked before arriving, I was at a pack a day, I was able to get one piece every hour, and so of course I did so.

After waiting hours and hours sitting quietly in a chair the man in charge of intakes arrived in a transportation van and walked in where he proceeded to call me back to their intake room. They took my phone and searched me to make sure I wasn't bringing drugs or contraband into the facility. Once that was done we got in the van together and proceeded to the Ranch.

When I call it a facility it isn't like a hospital or school or anything, it was more like a college dorm system. There were hallways and a large meeting area and where the hallways met there was an area that had fresh apples, oranges, and bananas for anyone that was replenished daily. I don't think in the three weeks I stayed there I ever saw an old orange, apple, or overripe banana.

As soon as I arrived the transporter guided me inside and took me to the outside overhang area designated for smoking cigarettes where I was given handshakes, smiles, and introductions one after the other until all twenty or so residents had greeted me.

I think the only real enjoyable part of this facility was going to AA meetings outside of the Ranch. What really got me was the problem that they don't allow you to sleep more than 8 hours regardless. They also wouldn't give my medication until 9:00pm. Also they wouldn't allow fifteen minutes a day for me to have access to my headset radio and to sit in bed and relax to music. They claimed it was anti-social habit and kept my music away from me, which was pure torture. Music was the only thing that got me through OSH, that and looking at the clouds when out in the courtyard. Basically I was a mental disorder patient in a facility for people facing addictions issues, the two did not mix.

The first day I was there they let me do whatever so I stayed in bed. The next morning, they called for breakfast at 6:00 am and I never eat breakfast so I stayed in bed because I was tired they don't let you go to sleep until 10:00pm. The result is I had some guy come in and wake me up, telling me I had to go down to breakfast even if I wasn't going to eat. At OSH if you were tired they let sleeping dogs lie, they made you aware of breakfast but if you didn't want to go you didn't have to.

The restrictions at Southside Recovery were unbearable. After two weeks I called my roommate Tyler first and my friend Carleton second. They both lived in Southside so I asked if one of them could come get me. Tyler could but had a lot of work on his plate. Carleton ended up being free and would pick me up so I could stay at his place until he could take me back to Oakridge. When I greeted him I said what's up, he and Damien had had a conversation where they discussed whether he should get me or not because they wanted to do what was good for me. Now at 30 I need them for nothing and I think now that I am gone they can realize I don't need them, they then get depressed until they find someone else to try to exhibit power and control over