Southern Ute Tribe: Recovery stories


Photo Credit: courtesy Lift The Label

Preston Barry 

My name is Preston. I’m a Southern Ute Tribal member; I grew up on the reservation most of my life. I work as a peer recovery coach for Southern Ute Behavioral Health, helping people with mental health disorders, substance use disorders, and other types of stress.  

I started drinking around 11, then I moved to marijuana. It was popular among my friends, so we were all going to try anything that one of us came up with. We tried cocaine, meth, and mushrooms over the years. Over the years, my substance use got me in legal trouble, including two DUIs. After my second, I was facing 18 months in prison. I was worried about losing cultural things that mattered to me, like being able to hunt with my family. So I went into incarceration with an open mind and heart to take every class I had available and actually sit there, listen, and apply it. 

Once I was through treatment, certain things helped me stay in recovery. Family was a huge one for me. And I built a mental toolbox for myself of reasons why I wasn’t going to drink, and I set reachable goals. 

One misconception about addiction is that it’s a choice, that a person continues to struggle with substance use by choice. If you sit down and educate yourself on addiction, you’ll see that isn’t true.  

In fact, a lot of people see addiction as a weakness. They think you’re admitting you’re weak and can’t handle it. It’s just frowned upon, even asking for help. Being male in our culture, we’re supposed to be the providers; we were not expected to go and ask for help.  

I think the Southern Ute community has banded together to fight addiction. We have excellent turnouts for the events we put on for Behavioral Health. We try to attend as many events as the Tribe puts on so we can talk about breaking the barriers of stigma and important things like Naloxone (Narcan). Naloxone is a medicine that rapidly reverses an opioid overdose. 

There are things within our culture that can help people break free from addiction or stay in recovery, like the Native American Church, the sweat lodge, beading classes, and breaking cycles.  

The support of loved ones is really important, too. Being there to support someone struggling, especially listening to their needs, can make a big difference in their recovery. If you’re still struggling with addiction, my advice is to give every treatment, give every therapy, give any resource out there a chance, and go into it open-minded and open-hearted. Allow it to work for you.  

It’s not written in stone that treatments will work for you; we’re all individuals, but having the behavioral health system that we have here, we can tailor-make a treatment plan for somebody in recovery. Only some things will work the first time or at all, but if you keep trying, you’ll find the right approach.  

 

Recovery from addiction is always possible. Find support and resources at LTLSouthernUte.org. 

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