Shining Light on Addiction and Recovery event inspires and encourages community

ANDOVER — Last Thursday, a powerful message underscored an event called Shining the Light on Addiction and Recovery.

Held at Bridgeway's Sussex County location in Andover, the mantra of the evening was that addiction is a preventable, treatable illness from which people can recover. The event was created to help change the negative public perception that surrounds people struggling with addiction and living lives in recovery as well as their family members.

Mediated by Sussex County Chamber of Commerce president, Tammy Horsefield, the program included panel members who joined to hear from constituents on this important topic.

Speakers in recovery traced their journeys and regaled stories of their lives as addicts and what had led to their turning points and recovery. Each spoke of how recovery had sullied them with wisdom, insight and faith.

Journey to recovery
Katie Calvacca, 25 of Vernon, was one of the speakers who courageously shared her story of how she'd hidden her addiction and eventually found recovery with a room full of strangers. She was an honor roll student and athlete in high school with a very secret life that she kept hidden from her family for a long time.

“I managed to deceive everyone,” she said, “They thought I was normal and I kept up the charade.”

It wasn't until Calvacca had a chance to travel abroad, when, while she was away, speculation turned to discovery by her family.

“I tried 12-step programs, but they didn't work," Calvacca said. "It wasn't until I started praying that the cloud rose.”

She has lost close friends and her best friend to addiction and addressed society's lack of seeing addiction as a disease.

“If you see someone drowning, you jump in," Calvacca said. "Everyone doesn't need to be a lifeguard, but [when it comes to addiction] we need more life saving resources.”

It took getting arrested in front of his entire family on April 9, 2013 for distribution of marijuana and possession of an excess of 50 grams of the drug for Michael Nieves, of Vernon, to go into recovery. Up until that time, he had deceived his family but to his friends was known as a dealer and a partier.

Nieves painted his typical day as an addict as needing marijuana to “just get the day started.”

Smoking pot on the way to work and then, “after work, I'd go smoke at a party or go to a buddy's house and get high and binge drink until two o'clock in the morning.”

Nieves said that people didn't and don't take his addiction to marijuana seriously believing that just because it was to be legalized one day it wasn't addicting.

“Why am I not considered a junkie?” he questioned.

Just because his drug of choice was marijuana, he said, “I have the same problem as any addict.”

Nieves is in a program called Drug Corps and is drug tested several times a week. This April, he will celebrate two years clean and sober.

Advocating for more help
The Garden State's Recovery Delegate, Rich Stabp, started his speech, “I spent half my life in addiction and recently celebrated half my life in recovery.”

He started drinking at the age of eight. Stabp turned his life around when he realized his addiction would prevent him from seeing his kids. He entered recovery and became such a positive advocate and role model that he was dubbed New Jersey's first Recovery Delegate in 2008.

The now Warren County resident said the bulk of his recovery was done in Sussex County and stressed the importance that recovery does work and people do change, but said, “insurance companies are killing us. They cover 10 days and then send people home.”

He urged the audience to help advocate for more resources in New Jersey.

"We also need to get families and communities to stand together and address this epidemic that is killing our citizens," Stabp said. "We need more beds meaning more treatment centers as wait lists keep the addicted out there. Our politicians need to step up for their communities, our recovering community must show by example that treatment does work and that they're not alone."

Other speakers addressed what it's like to have an addict in the family. Mary Burns, of Stockholm, lost her son, Eric, to addiction, and like Stabp, called for a change in the system.

“Twice we took Eric to a local detox unit, and twice he was turned away because he was not addicted enough. How can someone not be addicted enough is beyond my understanding.” She added, “In my opinion an addict who is really serious about recovery” needs six months of in-patient treatment.

Annmarie Shafer, a Franklin resident and The Coordinator of the Coalition for Healthy and Safe Families at The Center for Prevention and Counseling, spoke of her family and how they would talk about their loved one who was suffering from addiction in 12-step meetings but never outside that context due to mental illness' stigma. She equated it to how, for a long time, people wouldn't talk about cancer.

“They have different symptoms, but they are both a disease," said Shafer.

Panel members
Panel members included Father Robert Griner, the Rector at Christ Chruch in Newton and who is extremely involved with the recovery community of Sussex County. Jennifer Guiden was another panelist. She was recently named as the new Drug Court coordinator of Morris and Sussex counties and has worked in the judiciary for 11 years.

Having served as a judge in Morris and Sussex counties for 13 years, primarily in the Family/Civil/Criminal division, Thomas J. Critchley, Jr., was also on the panel. Sussex County Vicinage Assistant Chief Probation Officer, Michael Lasko was also on the panel.

Chief Michael Richards, Chief of the Newton Police Department since 2010 was on the panel as was Lou Crescitelli, the Chief of Staff for Assemblyman Parker Space and Assemblywoman Allison McHose who represents the 24th Legislative district for Sussex County residents. Patrick Roff, the Recovery Adocate for the New Jersey Dividion of Mental Health and Addiction Services was the final panelist.

The event was organized by the New Jersey National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence Advocates and Partners who volunteer their time to make a difference in the community to help those suffering from the disease of addiction and working to maintain lives in recovery.

Becky Carlson, the Executive Director, Center for Prevention and Counseling located in Newton said, there was a similar event for Morris/Sussex/Warren but, “I outreached to the coordinator, Aaron Kucharski, last summer to advise him that Sussex people weren’t going to Morris meetings and would he consider having meetings in Sussex.”

The Center for Prevention and Counseling started hosting the meetings last August and continued to do so each month.

“The group determined what they wanted to do to address recovery in our county and one thing was to reduce the stigma surrounding addiction and to speak up for those in recovery to advocate for support for those in recovery and their families.”

For further information about addiction and recovery, visit www.ncaddnj.org.