Rethinking Addiction: A Counselor's Journey from Recovery to Revolutionary Thinking Picture this: there I was, fresh from my stint as a treatment specialist with the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, where I'd mastered the fine art of drill sergeant-style rehabilitation (because nothing says "recovery" quite like being barked at to get your life together). I found myself sitting in my first staff meeting at a residential treatment center, armed with my personal recovery experience and the kind of rigid structure that only working in corrections can drill into your soul. Talk about culture shock - I'd traded my corrections clipboard for a treatment center's manual of absolutes, only to find they had more in common than anyone would care to admit. The message being hammered home was crystal clear: abstinence or death, addiction is a lifelong disease, and if you even think about deviating from this doctrine, you might as well hand your clients their relapse ...