46 - How to know if you are cut out to work in the addiction recovery field: who should and should not...

There is no shortage of people who need to be in recovery. Many people in recovery consider at one point or another working in the industry. There are wrong reasons and right reasons to work in the addiction recovery business. Today Tom, Ben, Adam, and Renee discuss how and why they got into the business.

We also talk about the right reasons and the wrong reasons to get into the business. We talk about the challenges and complete chaos that happens as well as the joy of seeing people succeed. We talk how you have to have a desire to help people to be successful and why your own recovery is a separate thing.

Show Notes

• [02:00] Why would somebody want to work with a bunch of addicts?
• [02:48] Adam asks why wouldn't someone want to work in this field? It is so rewarding. Even though, there is chaos all the time and so many moving parts.
• [03:06] Adam went to school to become a counselor. He tried several things, but working with the addiction population is way more exciting and fun.
• [05:55] Adam has a four-year degree with a specialty major in something related to psychology and a graduate degree in mental health counseling. He had two years of supervised work. Then he sat for his exam. Then he can go out and help people.
• [07:45] Adam was told do what you love and the money will follow and he loved helping people.
• [09:20] There's a common story in the helping profession, people have just been doing it their whole lives.
• [11:49] It's pretty natural for a lot of our clients to decide to get into this field. There is definitely a right way to do it and a not so right way to do it.
• [12:29] If you go full time to the addiction program it's 18 months.
• [12:48] The South Florida Shuffle is when people come down here and get into treatment and they start marketing for treatment centers down the road. The South Florida Shuffle is people bouncing from treatment center to treatment center because some street marketer got involved.
• [15:39] One of the problem is these people don't know anything about the care that these clients will receive.
• [16:11] There is now less client brokering going on here in South Florida.
• [16:44] You can also start as a behavioral health tech and work your way up. This is what Ben, Renee, and Tom did.
• [17:12] This is a great way to find out what it's like and to spend time with clients.
• [18:47] Legitimately good treatment centers require you to have at least a couple years of being sober.
  [22:11] We let people know that if they relapse they have a place to come to.
  [22:27] Renee was managing a pest control company. A friend of hers told her about a job in the recovery industry. At first, she really didn't want to do it.
  [23:04] Ben was Renee's tech, and she wasn't a good client at that point.
  [24:02] She was actually blacklisted from that treatment center.
  [24:59] Renee and Ben ended up working together and Renee was HR and case management.
  [25:15] Once Renee started working in the field, she never wanted to do anything else.
• [25:31] Renee loves the fact that we want to make the world better.
• [27:01] Ben says that Renee is so valuable because there's not much that she can't say to a client or a parent that she hasn't been through.
• [29:48] Treatment work is not your recovery. Your personal recovery happens outside of work.
• [30:44] In the addiction industry, you are caring for other people.
• [34:00] Sometimes Ben feels even more effective helping people outside of work.
• [37:06] Everybody sees themselves staying in this job for the future.
• [38:03] They not only love working with clients, but they also love working with each other. People in this field are very passionate.
• [39:08] The opportunities helping people are amazing. They have built lives that they could never met imagine. They're always trying to find creative ways to treat people.
• [40:16] If you like helping people and you're strong in your recovery then get in the industry.