From left, Nate Moellering of Fort Wayne and Tommy Streeter of Warsaw are the administrators of Bare Knuckle Recovery. Photo provided by Bare Knuckle Recovery

This is the final article in a five-part series on addiction. 

By Lasca Randels
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — In the final part of the addiction series, Tommy Streeter of Warsaw and Nate Moellering of Fort Wayne discuss maintaining sobriety after years of battling an addiction to heroin.

“Seeing an individual therapist, having a recovery coach and a sponsor,  going to meetings – these are things we recommend continuing to do forever because I can’t tell you how many people I’ve seen with years of sobriety who end up relapsing because they stopped doing all the things that helped them get to that point in the first place,” Streeter said. “This guy had 30 years of sobriety. Didn’t see him at a meeting one week, didn’t see him the next week or the next week. A month or two later he came back in and got a ‘start over’ token.”

When asked what happened, the man acknowledged he stopped attending meetings and talking with his sponsor. 

“He said he was just working and hanging out with his family,” Streeter said. “And as we’ve all found out, a job and family are not ever going to keep somebody sober. Because if it was, we wouldn’t have needed to get help in the first place. That’s why we recommend continuing to do those things. You can never have too much support.”

Many recovering addicts have an intense fear of relapse.

“I think having a healthy fear is a good thing because Nate and I both know, with the drugs that are out there now, if either one of us went and got high today we would die,” Streeter said. “There’s no doubt in my mind that if I bought a bag of heroin right now – because it would be Fentanyl, I would do a tiny bit and probably die. So I think it’s important to have a healthy fear, but I don’t walk around thinking about it.”

“Every day is a new day. We talk about years, but years don’t really matter as far as sobriety is concerned, in my opinion,” Moellering said. “Every single day is all we have, so we take it one day at a time. Tommy and I both still work a pretty hard program. We treat every day as if yesterday was our last day of getting high because we know we’re only one arm length away from getting high or drunk every single day so we have to continuously insulate ourselves with recovery.”

 Moellering and Streeter also make it a point to connect with people who are moving in the same direction and who push them forward in their journey.

“Our disease speaks to us in a way that tells us things we think of are our idea, but it’s not…it’s our addiction. Because we literally have a thinking disorder. You don’t have a drug problem – you’ve got a brain problem. Our thinking is what keeps us screwed up. Alcoholics and addicts do not think like rational human beings.  And that’s why it takes years of work to continuously resist that,” Moellering said. “You need to work on your recovery muscles because your addiction is out in the parking lot doing push-ups. It’s waiting for you to let your guard down and it’ll sucker punch you the second you do. I’m not telling people that to scare them. I’m just being honest because I’ve seen it happen.”

Streeter and Moellering spend a lot of time doing community outreach. They started the Bare Knuckle Recovery program as another way to connect with people.  

“Everybody has Facebook, so we thought we could reach people directly or reach their family members directly and not have to rely on therapists or doctors or hospitals to pass this information on,” Streeter said. “We want to help people and we want people to see that it is possible to overcome this. We’re two living examples that it’s possible to overcome this, so we just wanted to try a new way to reach all those people.”

For those who successfully complete the Jail Chemical Addiction Program through the Kosciusko County Jail, Streeter’s advice upon their release is, “See a therapist, go to meetings, get a sponsor.” 

Streeter and Moellering said residing in a sober living facility such as Serenity House for an extended period of time would be beneficial.

“It would be very much in your best interest to continue with as much support as possible. You can’t overdo recovery, in my opinion,” Moellering said. “If you were diagnosed with cancer and the doctor said you need to do this, this and this, you wouldn’t say ‘Nah, I don’t think I need that.’  Addiction is a disease. I don’t understand why we try to give people a minimalist approach, especially when it has such a high mortality rate and so many people are affected by it.”

“You’ve just got to want it and then follow through with it. When I went through this last treatment program, I followed all the recommendations given to me. I went to meetings, got a sponsor, worked the steps. I continue to go to meetings and work with my sponsor,” Streeter said. “I did therapy and an outpatient program. I did every single thing that anyone recommended and I’ve been sober since then.”

Streeter and Moellering may be contacted through Bare Knuckle Recovery.