“I pay attention to the details and hear their emotions because as a recovering addict, I have probably experienced what they’re feeling.” —Carl Evans, No Turning Back counselor and administrator “When I came into treatment, they said, ‘OK, sit down, shut up. You don’t know nothing,’” Evans recalls. “So I had to dummy up. Of course I knew something, because I had a couple of degrees. But I didn’t know how to stop using. So if they knew something I didn’t, I was going to keep quiet and learn it. I realized that I may be intelligent, but I’m not smart.” High price to pay Evans’ substance use had begun with alcohol and smoking pot at age 16, and progressed to taking prescription medication and eventually cocaine and heroin. In 2006, a misdemeanor charge led to court-ordered treatment at a facility in Baltimore County. By that time, his drug use had exacted a high price. He had been fired from several jobs and had also lost his wife and three kids.
employed as a counselor and administrator at No Turning Back since February 2014. He underwent treatment at Baltimore Behavioral Health in 2007, beginning a successful journey to recovery that included an 18-month course of treatment with inpatient and outpatient care, and a stay in a sober-living facility.
When Carl Evans meets a new treatment client at No Turning Back addiction treatment center in Baltimore, he knows he is meeting a kindred spirit.That’s because when Evans, a counselor and administrator at No Turning Back, first arrived there more than a decade ago, he was also an addict seeking help and recovery. The Baltimore native has been
CARL EVANS A kindred spirit
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