Jeanne’s Story of 52 Years of Sobriety

Jeanne’s story of 52 years of Sobriety – Jeanne has been a recovering addict for 52 years since the age of 24 and had tried committing suicide twice. She felt she was in a black hole that kept getting smaller, and one day she knew she would never come back. The doctor she went to said she was too young to be having problems with alcohol. No one ever really told her she could be an alcoholic this young and that she should seek treatment. Yet she somehow found herself at a 12-step meeting. She thought she would lose all her friends and never do anything fun again. In the group she noticed there were only 2 others close to her age. At that time it really wasn’t recognized that a 24 year old would need to get clean and sober, but she knew she needed help and couldn’t live her life this way anymore. She was working full time but found she had a passion for helping others with addiction. In the 70’s she started doing little groups of her own, and soon realized she wanted to do this full time. She went to see Dr. Tom Rusk and worked for him for about 3 years and ran a program for him in East County. Dr. Rusk decided he no longer wanted to work for the County, so she and the people who ran his programs were out of jobs. There were so many people that depended on and needed the services that Jeanne decided to start her own business called “McAlister Institute for Treatment Education”. They started with 1 program in the north County and today they have 29 different programs in 18 different locations and serve …

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Filed under: drug rehab treatment drinking age

As a young child, Dawn Crey of the Sto:lo First Nation witnessed her father die of a heart attack — an event that set her mother to heavy drinking. Janet Henry of the 'Namgis First Nation had a sister who was raped and murdered at the age of 19 — and …
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