It Takes a Village

Rockin’ Recovery Helps With Support, Recovery

Addiction has been part of Damon Crack’s life for as long as he can remember. He grew up watching his father get drunk and high every day. It affected him to the point that he didn’t try a single drink or drug in high school, but it was only a matter of time.

“In hindsight, I can see my addictive patterns starting well before I touched drugs and alcohol,” he says. “The way I played sports was obsessive and addictive, and I used to play hockey 12 hours a day in the winter. When I found golf at age 12, I used to play at least 36 hours a week. The obsession of addiction was already there.”

Crack was 14 when his parents divorced as a direct result of his father’s addictions. “I never felt comfortable in my own skin. I always felt insecure and anxious,” he recalls, labelling the feelings as his own personal “living problem.” He had his first drink when he was 18, and

“it felt like all of the insecurity and anxiety went away.” That moment marked the slippery slope of decade-long addiction, landing Crack with an impared driving charge and two weeks in jail. He lost relationships, failed out of school, and was fired from jobs. “My health was declining and I felt like I was living life at 20%,” he says.

“Addictions are sometimes sneaky,” says Tammy Turnbull, the treasurer of the Thunder Bay Drug Awareness Committee. “With alcohol, gambling, and pills, people don’t realize they’re heading down the road to addiction because there’s no sign that says stop—you take one more drink or one more pill, or go to the casino one more time, until you notice you’re in the middle of a chaotic storm.”

There are community groups for support and recovery. The Thunder Bay Drug Awareness Committee, Thunder Bay Drug Strategy, Fort William First Nation, and the Thunder Bay District Health Unit are hosting an online music, comedy, and story-sharing event called Rockin’ Recovery on September 22. It also marks the Drug Awareness Committee’s 30th anniversary.

“It’s a time to come together for anyone who’s been impacted by addiction. We are doing a pre-party from 2 to 4 pm at Bay Village Coffee on September 22. We’re inviting anyone who’s been affected by addiction or who has supported someone with addictions to come for a free coffee or tea and cookie,” Turnbull says. “The reality is everybody knows someone who has been touched by addiction, or they themselves might have had a struggle with it, but we’re not alone. And that’s what we’re bringing awareness to: the fact that we will heal better together.”

According to the Canadian Mental Health Association, “in Canada, it is estimated that approximately 21% of the population (about 6 million people) will meet the criteria for addiction in their lifetime,” with alcohol being the most common substance for which people met the criteria for addiction. The pandemic also caused significant increases in use and addiction. A Statistics Canada 2021 report points out that “of those who had previously consumed alcohol, nearly one quarter (24%) said their consumption had increased during the pandemic. […] Of those who had previously consumed cannabis, more than one third (34%) said their consumption had increased during the pandemic.”

For Crack, recovery meant checking himself into treatment. On his own, he managed to stay sober for three years without community addiction support. Although, on the outside he seemed well—he’d met his wife, his career as a nurse was underway, and he started to have children—he eventually relapsed, this time with pills. While working at a retirement home, he started taking people’s leftover medications.

His secret went on for two years until he eventually confessed what he’d done—a move that led him to lasting, community-supported recovery. He says the key to success is finding a recovery program supported by people who’ve experienced or faced addiction. He’s been sober for six years and now supports others with recovery—he says that people can reach him at damoncrack@ gmail.com.

“It’s not some shameful secret, it’s not something that should be kept in the dark,” says Turnbull. “You don’t need to feel alone and disconnected. You’re not alone.”

Learn more about Rockin’ Recovery 2021 or become a #RecoveryAlly at tbdhu.com. If you need support or more information, please call the Injury Prevention & Substance Misuse Program at (807) 625-5900, toll-free 1-888294-6630. Follow @DACTBay on Twitter and Instagram, or search #RockinRecoveryTbay for a chance to win a gallery-framed Norval Morrisseau print donated by Vince Mirabelli.