Why We Work At Ettie Lee... For Erik*

Erik* came into Ettie Lee’s Mt. Jurupa Home after completing a six month treatment program at Optimist Boys home. After graduating successfully from Optimist, Erik enrolled in The School of the Arts in Pomona. He recalled doing well for about a month but then going into “freefall.” Erik describes the freefall as a combination of feeling alienated from his classmates, feeling overwhelmed by numerous authorities so he resorted to self-soothing behavior through marijuana use. After a positive drug test, Erik was referred to Ettie Lee. Erik was released on June 2, 2009 after completing approximately five drug-free months of treatment at Ettie Lee’s home. Ettie Lee’s After-Care program continued with Erik after completing our program. A therapist regularly met and talked with Erik after he went home. After about three weeks, however, he no longer came to the meetings and stopped returning phone calls. The After-Care team continually tried to contact him, but knowing Erik, the team suspected that such a sudden break of communication meant a relapse for Erik.


Shortly after the team closed out the treatment plan at 30 days, as per DMH (Department of Mental Health) guidelines, Erik’s mother called and, as suspected, Erik had relapsed and was no longer responding to his mother’s house rules. After the therapist had several family meetings without Erik, Erik finally called. He said he saw all of the phone messages from the therapist that his mother had placed on refrigerator and that each time he saw those messages, he “felt a shot to his heart.” Erik is now back in an independent study school, still struggling with his sobriety, but keeps regular contact with Ettie Lee’s therapist including twice weekly meetings.


Erik recently expressed interest in re-enrolling to The School of Arts. Prior to a meeting with the Dean of the school, Erik has agreed to join a teen NA 12-step meeting, work on taking more responsibility for his expulsion from the school and reflect more the underlying reasons for his marijuana use and the destructive social connections he derived from it. These actions will no doubt, demonstrate Erik’s determination to stay sober when he meets with the Dean again.

* to protect the child's confidentiality we are not using the child's name