Partners of the Oneida County Substance Use Coalition, including Nicolet College, the Northwoods Coalition, Rhinelander Police Department, Human Service Center, Wisconsin Voices for Recovery, Oneida County Department of Social Services, the Oneida County Health Department and Northwoods United Way hosted Light Up the Night for Recovery Sept. 12 at Hodag Park. Dave Melancon photo

Recovery, substance use, mental health disorders focus of Hodag Park event

By Eileen Persike | editor

Dave Melancon photos

RHINELANDER – National Recovery Month was celebrated at Hodag Park last week, where the community showed up in support of those affected by mental health and substance use disorders. The sixth Light Up the Night for Recovery event featured booths and staff from Oneida County Substance Use Coalition partner agencies, there working to reduce substance use stigma by growing awareness and building connections to local recovery support services.

To help others understand substance use disorder, local speakers took to the amphitheater stage to tell their stories.

Michael Medrano, a Northwoods tattoo artist, told his recovery story that includes life as a gang member in his youth. He grew up poor in Chicago and began hanging out with the tough guys in the neighborhood to avoid becoming one of their victims.

Sober since 1988, Medrano said he still worries about the stigma attached to people in recovery, saying he always just wanted to be considered equal.

“There’s no difference between the sweet little old lady that cons a doctor for prescriptions and somebody like me that steals for prescriptions,” Medrano said. “We all suffer from the same disease, you know? The thing is, too, we all get to hit the same bottom. Those feelings of guilt, shame, regret, remorse – all that stuff.”

Recovery, he said, taught him to love, what love means, how to care about people.

“How to have some integrity. Be a man of my word, how to be a father. How to show up, how to listen, listen to people, give them my presence. All of this through recovery and through friends like I have here tonight,” Medrano said.

Tom Farley was the featured speaker of the night. Farley, the brother of the late actor Chris Farley, shared his story, “Growing up Farley: A Story of Addiction, Love and Forgiveness.” Not just telling the story of his brother going in and out of recovery programs, Tom talked about how he learned of Chris’s death in 1997 (on television) and how he found himself in recovery years later.

“[The family] could point to Chris and say, well, we’re not that bad so I guess we’re okay,” Tom Farley said. “We weren’t. But the other thing is we also couldn’t help Chris the way we should have as a family because we were fearful that we would have to be honest about our own issues. And so we made it Chris’s problem. And not ours.”

After some 20 years of occasionally attending AA meetings and being sober for up to a few years at a time before going back to drinking and partying, Tom said about six years ago he got tired of what he was doing. He said he understood that he needed more than to simply stop drinking.

This led to him attending another AA meeting, where he had his first experience of “just surrendering,” he said.

“I went and did something differently,” Tom Farley said. “I just shut up and listened. And I started not hearing how much somebody drinks or what they were doing. I was listening to other things – I’ve had broken relationships like this person, I’ve had job loss like that person; it had nothing to do with drinking. There’s all this other stuff that I learned; that if I wanted to work on it I just can’t drink again. I’m like, that’s what this is?”

And so that was his journey in recovery, Tom said.

“I just really – just for the first time in life felt like how I was supposed to feel and a sense of belonging.”

During Medrano’s story sharing, he gave a shout out to the recovery partners who were at the event.

“All these guys back there at these booths that help in different ways. You’re priceless, man. Priceless,” Medrano said. “We never know what message is going to stick with a person. Is it going to be your aftercare? Is it going to be that nurse? Is it going to be the counselor? You know, somebody hopefully plant the seed that’s going to sprout and save lives.”

There are a variety of resources available for anyone seeking support with substance use and mental health disorders. For example, a 24/7 crisis support line is available by texting or calling 988, or call 211 for local resources and referrals. For emergencies, call 911.