James Holloway started smoking cigarettes when he was 10 years old, he was smoking marijuana by age 11, and drinking by 12.
He said he grew up in a house that was labeled by his friends as “cool” because his parents didn’t care if he, or his friends, drank or did drugs there. Later on, he started using drugs and alcohol as a coping mechanism to numb some of life’s pain.
Pain like the time in 2009 when he had to pull the plug on his mom who had been in a coma for six days after she was in a severe car accident.
“That really screwed up my whole world up,” Holloway said. “It killed me ‘cause that was my best friend, she was like the one person I relied on most.”
After his mom passed, he said he couldn’t stop crying. After about a month, someone turned him onto Percocets, which suppressed the emotion.
Or pain like the time a good friend overdosed in 2014, and Holloway broke a year of sobriety to drink a couple of beers. Later that same day, he said he picked his two daughters up from school, and a teacher reported him for drinking. He went to prison for two years on habitual DUI and child endangerment charges for the incident. About a month into the sentence, he said he had a stroke that affected the entire left side of his body, although everything came back except the vision in his left eye.
“I took it as a sign from God that I needed to change my life,” said Holloway, a New Hampshire native, who is now in a long-term recovery home called Addiction Recovery Coalition in Hancock.
New Hampshire has been hit hard by the opioid epidemic with about 1,600 drug-related deaths tallied since 2012.
Hillsborough County had the second highest suspected drug-related overdose per capita, only behind Strafford County. Last year, Hillsborough County marked 152 deaths, a sharp uptick from 2012, a year that saw 54 drug-related deaths.
Out of a group of four recovering addicts who live at ARC in Hancock and were interviewed by the Ledger-transcript, all are aware that this is life or death, that one more fix could very well be the end. Many of them have come close to death themselves, or have lost family members or friends to addiction.
Tyler Maynard, a recovering addict from Western New York, said by the time he was 17 years old, he had started doing cocaine, a drug he remained addicted to for the better part of 13 years. Within the last three years, Maynard started using heroin and methamphetamines.
Even though he was able to stay away from needles, he has overdosed on a number of occasions.
“I’ve woke up in an ambulance going to the hospital four different times,” Maynard said.
He said he knew he had to get clean after he overdosed on fentanyl twice in one day.
Maynard has tried getting clean by geographical cure, by uprooting his life and moving out to Colorado. He’s done detox, inpatient, and outpatient, but none of it has worked.
Now, he’s giving transitional living a shot.
Maynard moved into ARC in Hancock, which is located at 26 Elmwood Road, at the beginning of the year. It’s located on a sweeping piece of farmland that overlooks Crotched Mountain. Four recovering addicts and a house manager are currently living in the newly renovated space that is owned by Arthur Cernota.
The home is a community transitional living space for individuals who have previously gone through an addiction-treatment program. Its core programming consists of a 12-step program, relapse prevention, and setting goals. The coalition is part of a larger network that partners with businesses and community organizations that develop recovery solutions, which help people secure employment during their stay.
On a recent Friday afternoon, the four men at ARC in Hancock were working to obtain their commercial driver’s licenses. They’ve also been working part-time with a local landscaping company.
When they’re back at the recovery home, they take care of cows that they are raising for meat. They are responsible for mucking out the stalls and feeding the animals.
ARC in Hancock costs $2,000 a month, and the four men staying there are responsible for covering as much of that as possible, according to its website. The work the men do is put toward their room and board fees.
House Manager Niles Comer, who is a recovering addict and has been sober since 2011, said the house is currently at full capacity with four guys. He said there is one person who is currently on a waitlist.
He said the four men staying at the house now are starting to work, and Comer said he’s just beginning to do outreach again, which he hopes will make the waiting list a little longer.
In the future, he said ARC Hancock has tentative plans to expand. If all of the housing on the property were remodeled, it could hold up to 15 people.
“We want to grow slowly and mindfully with the town’s approval,” Comer said.
He said there’s an epidemic, and this is one of many solutions to the problem
While some of the guys want to return to their families, others at the house want to dedicate their lives to helping others find treatment at the home. But right now, they are still focusing on their own recovery, and taking it day-by-day.
“My only real goal is to go to bed at night and put my head on the pillow sober,” Maynard said.
Holloway shared similar sentiments.
“I’ll be straight up, I wanted to use this week,” Holloway said. “I spoke to these gentlemen a few times I said, ‘we could just use and sweep it under the rug and pretend like it never happened. But we’re trying to be honest, and I’m just taking it one day at a time.”
Abby Kessler can be reached at 924-7172, ext. 234 or akessler@ledgertranscript.com.