Preston Merritt
“No Turning Back alumni are always welcome to come back and talk to counselors. They don’t cut the cord, which is a big help in maintaining sobriety.” — Preston Merritt, No Turning Back marketing specialist
The Long and Winding Road to Recovery
Fifty-six year old Preston Merritt’s journey to his current position as a marketing specialist at No Turning Back in Baltimore has not always been a smooth one. But in spite of a few detours along the way, it has ultimately proven to be a successful one. Before arriving at No Turning Back in 2011 to undergo 35 days of inpatient care, Preston had failed in 10 previous treatment attempts at getting and staying clean. He had amassed periods of eight and nine years of sobriety that ended each time with relapses. Merritt’s substance use had begun with smoking pot and drinking while in his teens and eventually progressed to sniffing cocaine, and then shooting heroin. “The drug that brought me down was heroin,” Merritt recalls . History of Drug Use At that point, he had a long work history. He had started working as a part-time orderly at New York’s Beth Israel Hospital while still in high school and then going full-time upon graduation from Theodore Roosevelt High School. Due to his drug use, Preston changed jobs fairly frequently, working at four different hospitals over the next decade.
“I would have been able put in 10 years at one place, if not for my drug use,” he says. In between relapses, he had some periods of “substantial clean time.” At one organization, he started as a job coach/job developer for disabled clients, and worked his way up to director of the program in the mid-1990’s. He eventually lost that job because of using. He also held positions as a case manager and counselor at other social service programs in New York. “Anytime I got a job, it was because I was clean.” Along the way, Preston earned his B.A. degree and then a Master's in Public Administration from Metropolitan College in New York. He was able to keep advancing in his hospital career before prescribed pain pills for a post-surgical recovery led to another heroin relapse.
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