Recovery houses are some of the most important places for those in recovery to turn to when faced with something everyone in addiction reaches: rock bottom. Even those who haven’t hit what others would see as rock bottom often reach a lowest low in their lives, and they either need to make a change or face jail, institutions, or even death.

At this point, we are either abandoned by our closest friends and family, or - more often - they simply do not know how to help us. Do we turn back to the people we’ve gotten so familiar with? The ones with whom we had dug ourselves deeper and deeper into the trap of addiction?

Thankfully, many of us are made aware of the option of a recovery house. To change our surroundings - people, places, and things - and become surrounded by like-minded individuals… this path is known to be one of the best ways to beat addiction. Recovery houses provide this and so much more.  

However, not every addict has the same needs, and not every addict can fit in and succeed at each available recovery house. Most recovery houses provide strict oversight, sometimes from people who aren’t in recovery themselves. While stringent oversight can be a great help for the addict who genuinely cannot recover without constant monitoring, there exist many of us who not only need but absolutely thrive with conditional liberty. To live in a house where you are your own boss but are held accountable by only your peers and not someone whose job it is to get in your business allows for someone to not only stay clean and sober but also develop and thrive in recovery. 

For example, I have personally gone from being a shell of my former self to regaining my intellectual curiosity, my passion in so many aspects of life, and - most importantly - an actual sense of trust in myself. If a house manager must have always kept tabs on me, would I have ever begun to believe that I can successfully face the challenges of life on my own?

I have the utmost respect for house managers at these recovery homes. Their jobs must be extremely stressful, and the empathy and compassion they show in addition to all the hard work they put in really prove their worth as a profession. However, not every addict needs to live with one of these people in order to thrive. In fact, I have seen firsthand that many people at Oxford House find themselves back in their youthful, pre-addiction ways: they lead themselves, they show enough empathy and compassion to fill any gap one might believe to exist without a house manager, they take accountability for their mistakes, and they show pride in their ability to juggle work, house responsibilities, and chapter responsibilities, all while managing to lead a fulfilling life. 

As someone who has lived in an Oxford House for over a year and simply cannot imagine being where I am without this house and the system in which it exists, I ask of you, please give Oxford House an exemption from this legislation. Oxford House works differently - though often more successfully - and it works for a different kind of addict than the ones other programs serve.

I leave you with this - has anything in your life that is labeled “one size fits all” ever really fit everyone?