Three of my Friends Can't Seem to Get Sober

"Bob" part 3 (Good news, he got sober)

As I documented earlier in the year, I have a friend named “Bob” that was struggling to get sober. This was a friend that I got addicted to heroin with nearly 15 years ago, and after getting clean for about 8 years by using Suboxone, he had a nasty relapse in 2021. He went to a fancy, for-profit rehab three times within about 6 months, immediately relapsing each time he got out. Against my suggestion of sending him to a long-term non-profit rehab, his family insisted on sending him to the same rehab three times in a row, where he was heavily medicated on seroquel and clonopin (one of the very drugs that he was abusing).

During his fourth relapse of the year he ended up disappearing for a few days, and wound up going on quite the adventure. For nearly a week, he got to experience a compressed version of my ten year run. Tents, violence, blood, police, guns, and a meth-induced home invasion. He avoided arrest and was sent to a mental hospital, which was for the best. After all, he entered a young couples home not to rob them, but to hide from an invisible gang of attackers.

Finally his parents agreed to send him to the rehab I’d been suggesting for half a year. They got Bob into a hotel and stayed with him for nearly a month while they waited for his Kaiser insurance-provided “addiction specialist” to approve it. She put him and his family through the wringer the whole time and kept promising that she’d get it approved shortly. She explained she could instantly get him into the same, Kaiser-approved sham rehab he’d already been human-trafficked through three times, but they put their foot down and insisted he go to the rehab I suggested. After a month, she finally came clean and said she wouldn’t approve it. I’m assuming there was some sort of kick-back scheme going on with the sham rehab, and even though the rehab I suggested took Kaiser insurance, there was nothing to be gained by the “addiction specialist” to send Bob there.

Regardless, Bob stayed clean for a month in that hotel with his parents and even walked down his Suboxone intake. They got him into a reputable sober living, and by month two of sobriety, Bob had successfully gotten off Suboxone all together. He found a large social group through his roommates and 12-step groups in the neighborhood, and now he’s well into his 6th month of sobriety. He’s back to work, getting his life on track, and is surrounded by people that are supportive without having to bill his insurance. Unfortunately for Kaiser, none of what Bob has done to stay sober for 6 months has made them a penny. And fortunately for Bob, none of their prior mismanagement and borderline-corruption sent him to an early grave.

I love you, Bob. And I couldn’t be more proud of you.