OGDEN, Utah — Recovering from addiction is a difficult process, but places like the Alcohol and Chemical Treatment Center in Ogden, which is celebrating its 40th year in service, are there to help people conquer their addictions.
More than 30 years ago Larry Kasting landed himself in the hospital while drunk driving.
“I got nipping on that bottle, and I just had too much, and I just I got home, and I missed the street going to the house,” he said.
But now Kasting is celebrating 30 years of sobriety, and he said he wouldn’t have made it without the help of the ACT program at the Ogden Regional Medical Center.
ACT Center Counselor and psychologist Dr. Mitchell Koles said their program seeks to get people completely free of addictions rather than try to moderate them.
“The goal here is abstinence,” he said. “It`s an abstinence based program. We`re not trying to help people do moderated use.”
The ACT center is celebrating its 40-year anniversary, and Koles said the program helps people take the first steps toward becoming healthy.
“This is just the very beginning of a change in lifestyle that needs to occur, because without that change in lifestyle people remain very vulnerable,” he said.
ACT Center Counselor Anthony Martinez said, like his patients, he too has found help at the center to deal with personal addictions, which is why he does what he does.
“It`s part of my continuing effort to stay sober myself,” he said. “But at some point I figured that it was time for me to give back to the community what was given to me when I got here.”
Those who have taken advantage of the program, like Kasting, encourage those with addictions to do the same.
“I don`t think it`s in our everyday life that we can give up like that and still be around it and not feel guilty—I mean not taking a drink,” he said.” No, I don`t think I could`ve done it on my own.”
For more information about the program, visit their website.
