5K celebrates the party potential of sobriety

San Diego Union-Tribune - 9/27/2021

For those struggling with addiction, sobriety might sound boring.

But it would have been hard to make that case Saturday morning at NTC Park, where hundreds got dancing, hugging and just generally festive at the ninth-annual 5K Walk for Sobriety sponsored by the McAlister Institute, a local addiction treatment powerhouse.

Waving a rainbow flag in the crowd that gathered at one of Liberty Station's most-iconic locations, Yolanda Ochoa, who said she is now six months sober after entering a women's program run by McAlister, said she wished everyone knew how fun the sobriety community has become.

"The funnest people in the world are ex-addicts and alcoholics," she said. "We do everything: bonfires, hiking, axe throwing, everything can be done without alcohol and drugs, for sure."

It's a message that carries a particular importance at the moment.

The San Diego Prescription Drug Abuse Task Force released its latest report card late last month, showing that the number of unintentional overdose deaths due to prescription-type drugs and fentanyl documented across the region more than doubled from 2019 to 2020, increasing from 275 to 576.

Many blame the never-ending COVID-19 pandemic, with its isolating stay-at-home orders, for the increase. It is also clear that the increasing use of the powerful opioid fentanyl has made it easier to end up taking a lethal dose without realizing the true depth of the danger.

In late August the crisis was underscored by the death of a 17-year-old boy from Chula Vista who is suspected of overdosing just one day after medics rescued one of his friends from a similar situation.

McAlister sponsored Saturday's 5K to help raise funds for its anti-addiction work but also to bring its former clients together to experience the sheer power of community.

Wendy Davis, a volunteer from San Diego who said she has been sober for five years, stood near the pop-up awning of The Phoenix, a nationwide nonprofit dedicated to building a "sober active community" that organizes a wide range of activities and events from pickleball to rock climbing.

"When people are isolated like they have been during the pandemic, they start getting desperate, and that's where you start to see so many overdoses," Davis said. "But we want anyone who is in that box to know that their objective should be to find their group, so they can go and and enjoy the world together.

"They need to know that there really is hope and fun out here."

Five months into a local treatment program, Abner Lister said he agreed. Having experienced homelessness during his struggle with addiction, the Skyline resident said that he has been amazed at the activities that are available. But he was quick to note that recreation, while important, is not the complete answer. At the moment, he said, he is unsure of where he will live after his program is complete.

"You can get sober and be sober, yes, but if you don't have any place to live when you are finished, you're going right back to where you were at," he said. "That can just keep going around in a circle where you're in and out and in and out of programs."

This story originally appeared in San Diego Union-Tribune.