Carol Vassar Posts

from the 2013 Rushford Annual Report

Karen Ablondi is very much a child of the 1970s.

“I had a real good family. We lived in the suburbs. My dad was town first selectman. My mom was a school nurse. We were an intact family. We had a very normal childhood,” she said.

But as anyone who came of age during the 1970s and early 1980s will tell you, the norms and attitudes toward drugs and alcohol were significantly different five decades ago.

“The late 70s were kind of a crazy time,” she said. “Anything went. I had older cousins and siblings who were partiers. The (legal) drinking age was 18, but I tried alcohol for the first time when I was 12 or 13.”

By early high school, partying “became a priority for me.” By 16, she was an IV drug user. “I did heroin and cocaine. I continued on that path on and off. I drank and smoked pot daily, too,” she recalled.

After high school, she headed to Florida to live, where her partying ways escalated to drug dealing.

“I was a risk taker. I was living on the wild side,” she admits.

For nearly six years, she lived what she considered a “normal semblance of life.”

Her family in Connecticut remained mostly unaware of her Florida situation. In Florida, she worked and attended community college — and partied using drugs and alcohol.

In 1986, her worlds collided. Finances crumbled and she returned to Connecticut, landing a good job. But she was still hooked on drugs, finding her fix now in prescription pain killers. In 1989, she and a boyfriend were arrested for trying to fill prescriptions at a pharmacy.

“It was the first time my parents realized something was seriously wrong,” she recalled. “They tried their best to help me.”

At age 25, she was out on a $40,000 bond and had 38 pending felony charges. She

still had no interest in getting clean. But her parents insisted.

After a successful stint at a detox unit in New Haven, Karen attended a residential addiction recovery halfway house program then located at Rushford’s Crescent Street, Middletown location.

“It was the third floor in a very old building,” she recalled. “The expectation was that I’d find a job to cover room and board. I had to work in the kitchen washing pots and pans. I hadn’t had a routine in a long time. I hadn’t had a job in a few years. I didn’t have to do anything at a regular time, like eat, make my bed, take a shower or go to work. Rushford provided me the structure so I could do that.” 

Her time at Rushford also gave her a chance to live with others who were living sober.

“I met all different kinds of people. I went to (NA and AA) meetings,” she recalled. “I was able to integrate back into the community. I got a job at Aetna.”

She found a sponsor, and she’s been sober ever since. She went on to receive her bachelor’s degree in sociology and criminal justice, and a master’s degree in social work. She is today a married mother of two who works full-time. She still attends NA meetings at least once a week. 

About a year ago, she and her husband opened a recovery house, not unlike the one at Rushford where Karen herself started her recovery journey in 1989. Her approach to helping is also not all that different from back in the day, either.

“When someone calls about getting into the sober house, they have to want to make a change on some level,” she said. “I do believe it is important to intervene whenever possible. You just never know when someone is going to grab onto (recovery) and run with it like I did.”

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from the 2012 Rushford Annual Report

Seeing him today, 19-year-old Tim Harmon fits the stereotypical picture of health: rosy glow, strong arms from hours spent in the gym and a confident gait.

But on the morning of October 19, 2011, Mary Ann Harmon discovered her son unresponsive.

“I found him face down in bed. He was cold and ashen. I yelled to him. No response. I could not feel a pulse, and he had just one breath every 10 to 12 seconds. I couldn’t pull him off the bed.” Mary Ann – a Registered Nurse – performed CPR, and ordered others in the house to call 9-1-1.

Tim had overdosed on a combination of drugs, including K2 (synthetic marijuana), cough syrup, and, most significantly, morphine.

In the five days that followed, Tim Harmon’s survival was in doubt. He was in a coma for the first 48 hours, having suffered from aspiration pneumonia and a collapsed lung.

“We are fortunate that he recovered fully without any cognitive defects,” Mary Ann said.

Upon his release from the hospital, Mary Ann and her husband, Justin, sent their son to rehab at Rushford at Stonegate in Durham, a residential facility, designed to treat adolescent males between the ages of 13 and 18.

Choosing a facility close to their Guilford home was important.

“If he had a problem, I wanted to be nearby and be involved in it and have people teach me about what was happening,” Mary Ann stated.

“I wanted a high quality facility nearby that treated the entire family. We found that in Rushford.”

“We were involved in Tim’s recovery through weekly family meetings,” Mary Ann noted. “Rushford staff communicated openly with us, some- times daily. That was so important.”

Recovery has not been easy for Tim, but both he and Mary Ann remain optimistic for Tim’s continued success. Mary Ann, however, noted that recovery is not a simple process.

“CPR was easy,” she said modestly. “Recovery is hard.”

As for the future, Tim is considering college classes, possibly to become a therapeutic recreation provider. As for advice he’d give others who might be dealing with substance use issues, Tim Harmon is wise beyond his years.

“Stop. Breathe. Ask for help,” Tim said.

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