The stretch nobody writes about: the part where things are going fine.
Eighteen doors open today in Yankton, South Dakota, and behind every one of them a woman can bring her kids.
Park Haven Learning and Recovery Center starts taking residents Monday, August 24: eighteen private rooms with private bathrooms, a shared kitchen, and a rule that mothers with infants or young children do not have to choose between treatment and their family. Avera Sacred Heart Hospital built it, Lewis and Clark Behavioral Health Services runs the programs, and a $3.8 million state grant paid for it under a 2022 law. "This facility represents far more than a new building," said executive director Dr. Thomas Stanage. "It represents a transformational step forward for women, children and families in our community." Avera · Dakota News Now
Addiction wrote a story into you. Recovery is learning the code, how this actually works, and rewriting the story, one line at a time. Nobody runs that rewrite for you. It's an inside job.
This issue is about the stretch nobody writes about: the part where things are going fine. That is exactly when the maintenance starts feeling optional, and it is exactly when BOBO goes looking. Also inside: reported news stories from three places, a Medicaid deadline that is now 130 days out, a woman who walked out of an Idaho prison and opened a recovery center, and a new road trip for anybody who needs a room tonight. Kat is still our Recovery Hero. If you missed her last time, she is waiting further down, and she is worth the scroll.
Washington, D.C.'s 2027 budget sends about $2.3 million in opioid settlement dollars toward the District's share of Medicaid, and at least $5.5 million more toward addiction treatment centers the general budget used to cover. D.C. law says that money "shall supplement, and not supplant" what the government already owes, and more than 80 people and 30 organizations signed a letter objecting. "If the opioid settlement funds were not there, I feel pretty confident that these things would have been funded, because they have to be funded," said Chad Jackson, who chairs the city's opioid abatement commission. Worth watching wherever you live, because this is how settlement money quietly disappears. KFF Health News · WTOP
In an April 24 letter to grantees, SAMHSA said federal dollars can no longer pay to hand out drug test strips to the public, or fund sterile syringes, pipes, and overdose hotlines staffed for people who call while using. The agency called those practices a shift away from things that "facilitate illicit drug use." In Baltimore, where overdose deaths have fallen more than 40% since 2023 and one neighborhood saw three mass overdose events in 2025, the Baltimore Harm Reduction Coalition now has to fund strips out of something else. "We're going to have to pull money from other places," said Candy Kerr of the coalition, naming hygiene and wound care kits. KFF Health News / WYPR · STAT
Ark House Rehab in Scarborough, England opened a new building this month called the Akron Suite, with lecture rooms and counselling space, alongside a £17,000 kitchen refit. Ark House has run for over 34 years and is rated Outstanding by the UK's care regulator. Recovery groups came from across the country for the opening, including LikeWise in Sheffield, The Basement Project in Halifax and Renew in Hull, along with former residents. "To welcome members of the recovery community alongside former residents who are walking a new path in life, is something we are truly grateful for," said director Chris Long. A small thing worth noticing: the people who got out came back for the ribbon. The Scarborough News
The Denver Post, reading provisional federal data, reports 1,554 people in Colorado died of unintentional drug overdoses in 2025, up from 1,409 in 2024 and up from 884 in 2019. About three quarters of those deaths involved fentanyl and more than half involved methamphetamine or another stimulant. Two caveats we are printing on purpose: provisional counts get revised by the agencies that issue them, and we found no second outlet reporting these figures, so treat them as one newsroom's read of a live dataset rather than a settled number. The direction is the part nobody disputes. National deaths have been falling. Ours have not. The Denver Post, via Tribune News Service
Lisa Raville, who runs the Harm Reduction Action Center in Denver, told the paper awareness is not the problem: "It's really the supply and using alone that are causing deaths." Both of those have an answer you can act on this week. International Overdose Awareness Day is Monday, August 31. The Colorado Consortium has helped local groups run events statewide since 2017 and keeps a running list of them, plus handouts and, when they have it, naloxone. Colorado Consortium
Nothing moved in court this month, and that is the news. On July 29 Judge Richard Stearns refused to block the federal Medicaid work requirement, so the rule stands and so does the January 1, 2027 deadline. Since then the docket shows one entry: a scheduling order on August 6. The hearing that actually decides the case is October 20, leaving about ten weeks between a ruling and the deadline (Georgetown litigation tracker). Meanwhile the build continues: the newest thing CMS has posted for states is an overview deck dated July 27 (Medicaid.gov). From today, the deadline is 130 days out.
Colorado's exemption language is still wider than the federal floor, and it is still the most useful paragraph in this whole story. Health First Colorado exempts people in treatment for a drug or alcohol use disorder, people living with a substance use disorder that keeps them from completing 80 hours a month, and, in the state's own words, "People in recovery from a drug or alcohol use disorder for 5 years or less that prevents them from completing 80 hours per month of work, school, and/or volunteer activities." Renewals move to every six months, and letters go out in January 2027 to members whose renewal lands in March (Health First Colorado).
Do the paperwork now, while it is boring. Three things: make sure your address and phone are current with your state Medicaid office, ask your treatment provider or peer specialist for written proof of enrollment and keep your own copy, and open every envelope from now until spring. An exemption you qualify for does nothing if the state cannot see you. Guidance is still developing and the court could still vacate the rule in the fall. We track this every issue.
She started using methamphetamine and cocaine as a teenager. She was arrested in Montana in 2010 and served more than a year at the Pocatello Women's Correctional Center. This month she opened a recovery center. Cornerstone Wellness and Recovery on Lomax Street in Idaho Falls does day treatment, intensive outpatient, therapy, case management, peer support and recovery coaching for youth and adults, and Taylor-Thompson is its co-founder and chief operating officer. Two things you should know: she is an executive of a treatment business, not a volunteer, and she has been in long-term recovery for well over a decade and says so to every client who walks in.
"16 years ago, I walked out of an Idaho prison with a 17-year sentence hanging over my head and absolutely no idea what my future would hold."
"I share my lived experience with them, and say, 'Hey, you know what? I have walked the same path that you've been on.'"
"Anything is possible. Recovery is possible. Your past does not define who you are."
There's a specific kind of alone that most people never touch. Kat lived in it. By the end her husband had been murdered over a bad drug deal, every bridge she'd ever had was ash, and she was on the streets. Somewhere in there she'd crossed the line that scares people most, the one where you stop being afraid of dying and start wishing for it.
She had one thing left. A service dog named Tramp. Fifteen years, the two of them.
Then the overdose. Then the coma. And here's the part anyone who has ever hated themselves will understand: when she woke up, she still didn't want to be alive. Recovery didn't start with a burst of hope. It started with none. But she looked down and Tramp was lying across her legs where he'd stayed the whole time, and she couldn't do it to him. She didn't have enough left to live for herself. She had just barely enough to live for someone who needed her. That's how it happens for a lot of us. Not because we suddenly believe we're worth it, but because someone else is, and we borrow their reason until we grow our own.
So she said yes to one more day. For the dog.
Fort Lyon, a two-year transitional housing program, came and got her from Denver Health. And then Kat did the thing shame always talks you into. She went in her room and shut the door. When you're that low, isolation doesn't feel like a symptom. It feels like the only safe place left. It's the loneliest lie there is.
Her roommate wouldn't let her have it. Bobbie. Every single day, on her about a meeting. And one day, worn down, just to make her stop, Kat went. That meeting saved her life. She hasn't used since.
Sit with how thin that thread is. A dog who needed her. A roommate too stubborn to quit. That's what stood between Kat and the ending everyone expected for her, and she grabbed it with both hands. Four meetings a day for eighteen months. Narcotics Anonymous gave her her life back and taught her how to live on life's terms, and the woman who nagged her into that first room became her best friend in the world.
Bobbie didn't make it. She couldn't stay clean, and she's gone now. Kat has watched too many people she loves go the same way and doesn't pretend that isn't gutting. Anyone who has buried friends from this knows that ache never fully leaves. She carries it on purpose. It's part of why she can't sit still while somebody else is out there drowning.
Nine years clean now. A disabled widow in Colorado, living alone, who says plainly that she has dedicated her life to saving lives. Service work at her home group. A plethora of sponsees she pours herself into every single day. And she means this completely: they are the reason she wakes up every morning. The woman who once didn't want to open her eyes now has people depending on her. Carrying the message is the greatest purpose she has ever known.
Here's how she says it to the person still out there:
"I see you. I know the darkness. Take my hand. You never have to be alone again. Let me love you and help you live, just for today."
"The difference between using and being clean is literally like night and day, darkness and light. Today I'm a Hope dealer, not a dope dealer. If I can do this, I guarantee you anyone can do this. Find a life worth living. You are worthy. Let me show you the way."
If you're reading this from inside that silence right now, hear the part that matters most. Kat didn't start with hope. She didn't feel worthy. She just let one reason keep her one more day, and then she let one stubborn person love her into a room. That was enough to build nine years on. It can be enough for you too.
Your story is not over. You are not alone.
Know somebody like Kat? Somebody quietly showing up for people who have nothing to give back? Tell us:
recoveryhero@therecoverycode.org
Everybody gets told what to do when it's bad. Almost nobody gets told what to do when it's good, which is strange, because that is where most people quietly lose it. Not in a crisis. In a decent stretch. The job comes back. The relationship gets repaired. The money is fine for once. And the recovery routine starts to feel like a coat you're carrying in July.
Coasting is boring to describe, which is why nobody warns you about it. You skip the thing you always go to, but only sometimes. You stop telling anyone the unflattering version of your week. You get busy in a way that is completely legitimate, and the legitimate thing eats the hour. You would still pass any test anybody gave you. And somewhere in there you quietly stopped doing the one thing that was holding it up.
So build the maintenance into the good weeks on purpose. Keep one commitment that does not flex: a meeting, a call, a run, a Sunday morning. Tell one person the boring truth weekly, especially when the truth is "nothing's wrong," because you want that habit warm for the week something is. Do something for somebody newer, which costs an hour and buys you a mirror. And ask yourself the only question that matters here: what did I use to do that I've stopped doing? Then go put it back. Nobody coasts through this. The people who make it just keep paying a small bill on time.
Read that line again, because it is not even a lie. You probably do have it, today. That's what makes it BOBO's best work. He is not arguing with your recovery, he is congratulating you on it, and then quietly proposing that you can keep the result without the work. He does not need you to use. He needs you to stop patching. Complacency is the exploit, and it does not announce itself as danger. It shows up as competence.
BOBO is malware. He does not run while you're maintaining the system. He idles, watches for the check you stop running, and waits. The DIS-EASE is patient in a way that nothing else in your life is. And if he does execute, that is a bug that got through, not a verdict on you. You roll back and you rebuild.
The patch: run the check you feel least like running, on the day you feel least like you need it. Name one thing you have stopped doing since things got good, and put it back this week. He never fully deletes. He only stays quarantined, and quarantine is a thing you maintain.
Week 1: Find the dropped thing. Name one piece of your routine you have quietly stopped doing since life got easier, and do it once this week. Just once. That's the whole assignment.
Week 2: Monday is Overdose Awareness Day. Learn to use naloxone if you never have, carry it if you can get it, and make sure one person you love knows where yours is.
Work trip, family visit, rural road, 2 a.m. None of it has to stand between you and a room. Virtual meetings run around the clock, worldwide. This issue's stop is for the people whose drug nobody takes seriously.
When: Every Monday, 7:00 PM Eastern / 6:00 PM Central / 5:00 PM Mountain / 4:00 PM Pacific (23:00 UTC while the US is on daylight time)
Where: Online, hosted on In The Rooms. The meeting appears on the live meetings calendar: intherooms.com/livemeetings/list
Getting in: In The Rooms is free, but the site notes this meeting is on a platform where "attendees will have to create an account and have a registered email with the site." Make the account before 7, not at 6:59.
Marijuana Anonymous calls itself "a free peer-support program focused entirely on our shared problem with marijuana or cannabis addiction," and says all you need to start is "a desire to stop using cannabis / marijuana" (MA World Services). If you have ever been told your thing doesn't count, this is a room full of people who were told the same. Clock warning: In The Rooms shows times in whatever zone your profile is set to, so check the calendar once you sign up.
Online Intergroup of AA · directory of online AA meetings running 24/7, worldwide
NA Virtual Meeting Search · NA's hub for virtual meetings, any time zone
In The Rooms · free live online meetings across many recovery paths, all week long
SMART Recovery Online · filter the meeting finder to online sessions
Recovery Dharma Online · meditation-based recovery meetings, daily, from anywhere
Same rule as always: these are doors, not "the" way. Wherever you are tonight, one of them is open. Most of these directories now show meeting times in your own time zone, so open the listing and confirm before you go.
Carr was a New York Times media columnist who did not trust his own memory of his years on crack, so he reported his life like an assignment: sixty videotaped interviews, legal and medical records, three years of work, all aimed at fact-checking his own story. The result is brutal and funny and completely unwilling to tidy itself up. He went through treatment and rooms, he does not sell you a path, and he is honest that he drank again years later. Fair warning, it goes to some hard places early, including using during a pregnancy. If you have ever suspected your own version of events, this is the book. Simon & Schuster, 2009.
Need a higher level of care than a meeting? A member of our community sent in this list of Colorado detox and inpatient residential treatment (IRT) contacts. It's a starting point, not a ranking or an endorsement: coverage changes and beds fill, so always call to verify, especially Medicaid (your RAE region). PHP/IOP/OP are day and outpatient programs. In crisis, call or text 988.
Denver CARES (Denver) · (303) 436-3500 · Detox · Medicaid RAE 3
Centennial Peaks (Westminster) · (970) 673-4980 · Detox
Landmark Recovery (Aurora) · (720) 702-9729 · Detox/IRT · most insurance
CuraWest (Denver) · (888) 687-5118 · Detox/IRT · Medicaid RAE 1 & 3
Mile High Recovery Center (Denver) · (855) 796-2102 · IRT/PHP/OP/sober living · Medicaid RAE 3/4/5 + private
Foundry Front Range (Broomfield) · (720) 807-7867 · IRT · Medicaid RAE 1
CeDAR (Aurora) · (720) 848-3000 · Detox/IRT · most insurance
Alpine Recovery Center (Denver) · (720) 704-2883 · Detox/IRT · Health First Colorado RAE 3
Rocky Mountain Detox (Lakewood) · (833) 433-4850 · Detox/IRT · private + Medicaid
West Pines (Westminster) · (877) 519-3108 · Detox
Valiant Living Detox & Assessment (Fort Lupton) · Detox · private + all Medicaid
Avenues Recovery Center (Denver) · (720) 704-0844 · Detox/IRT/PHP/IOP · most insurance
Sandstone Care (Denver) · (888) 850-1890 · PHP/OP · private insurance
Footprints to Recovery (Centennial) · (855) 628-2899 · Detox/IRT · Medicaid RAE 1
Recover Colorado (Westminster) · (888) 695-5407 · call to verify
Red Rock Recovery Center (Lakewood) · (855) 218-7588 · Detox/IRT
Denver Springs (Englewood) · (720) 643-4300 · Detox/IRT · most insurance
Valley Hope of Parker (Parker) · (303) 841-7857 · Detox/IRT · Medicaid RAE 1 & 2 + private
The Raleigh House (Arvada) · (720) 891-4657 · Detox/IRT · most insurance
Continuum Recovery Center of Colorado (Denver) · (844) 901-3066 · Medicaid RAE 1
Revive Health and Recovery (Denver) · (720) 573-6450 · Medicaid RAE 1
Colorado Medication Assisted Recovery (Thornton) · (720) 707-3593 · Medicaid RAE 1
Turning Point Center for Youth & Family Development (Fort Collins) · (970) 221-0999 · most insurance
ARTS: Addiction Research & Treatment Services (Denver) · (303) 734-5000 men's / (303) 336-1600 adult outpatient · Detox/IRT
Northpoint Recovery (Loveland) · Detox/IRT · most insurance
New Beginnings Recovery Center (Littleton) · (303) 830-2064 · IOP/DUI
Mountainside Women's Recovery Center (Aurora) · (970) 245-4214 · IRT/housing, women
Circle Program, Health Solutions West · IRT/housing
There are many paths to recovery, and none of these is "the" way; they're doors. Find your path, any path, just find one.
Hotlines: SAMHSA National Helpline 1-800-662-HELP (4357) (free, confidential, 24/7) · 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: call/text 988 · Cocaine Anonymous 310-559-5833
Find treatment: findtreatment.gov · confidential, free, official locator
Find a meeting (every path counts): AA · NA · CA · CoDA · SMART Recovery · Recovery Dharma · Marijuana Anonymous
Get connected, get moving: Young People in Recovery · peer support, life skills, local chapters · The Phoenix · free sober active community
Colorado readers: 5280 High School (Denver recovery high school, tuition-free) · Overdose Awareness Day events
Nominate a Recovery Hero: recoveryhero@therecoverycode.org
Contact us: support@therecoverycode.org
"Please help" might be the two most valuable words a person struggling with addiction can learn. So we'll go first:
Too many people are still stranded: cold, isolated, and convinced nobody is coming for them. We are coming.
Help us build a bridge from the icy island of addiction to a life filled with hope, freedom, and purpose. Help us cast a dragnet of hope wide enough to reach every person who is still struggling. A like may seem small. A follow takes only a second. But one share could reach someone on the night they are ready to give up.
Please:
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• Invite others to help us reach the people still struggling.
You may never know which share becomes someone's first step toward recovery. Together, we can reach more people. Together, we can save lives. We leave no one behind.
The Recovery Code · IT'S AN INSIDE JOB.
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Eighteen rooms in South Dakota where a mother keeps her kids. A rehab in a English seaside town where the people who got out came back for the ribbon. A woman who walked out of an Idaho prison with a seventeen year sentence over her head and opened a treatment center this month. None of that was a good week. All of it was somebody paying a small bill on time, for years, until it added up to a building.
Your story is not over. You're mid-rewrite, and the next line is yours to write. Nobody coasts. Pay the small bill this week. See you in two weeks. Keep debugging — and keep BOBO out of the build.
SAMHSA National Helpline · free, confidential, 24/7: 1-800-662-HELP (4357)
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline · call or text 988
// checksum: every fact in this issue was checked against at least one primary or two independent reputable sources before publishing: that's our checksum. Data labeled preliminary or provisional may be revised by the issuing agency. Where a figure rests on a single source, we say so on the page. A full verification log is kept for every issue. Spot an error? Email support@therecoverycode.org and we'll patch it, publicly, next issue.
Recovery Hero nominations: recoveryhero@therecoverycode.org · Contact: support@therecoverycode.org
THE RECOVERY CODE · Issue #4 · August 24, 2026 · Published every two weeks · It's an Inside Job.