A normie wandered in unawares: Coffee, karaoke, and group therapy

Harold Jonas, 52, kicked a heroin habit two decades ago in the beachfront city of Delray Beach, Florida, far from his native Philadelphia, and decided to stay. He married a fellow addict, raised a family, earned a doctorate and opened a halfway house for substance abusers making the transition from residential care to independent living.

Steadily, he and his wife, Dawn, expanded their cottage industry. They organized an association of halfway house owners and opened KoffeeOkee, the coffeehouse-karaoke bar.

About 20 residents of Delray Beach recently gathered at the café one night for a weekly counseling session. One "normie" – their word for the 65,000 year-round townspeople – wandered in unawares and was allowed to stay. First-timers sat at the periphery of the circle, avoiding eye contact with others.

Advice to people struggling with drug habits: You can have fun and friends without harmful drugs.

Browse for related stories in the index at the very bottom of this page, or read one of our Delray Beach stories.

Thanks to Jane Gross for the source article in the Nov. 16 issue of the New York Times.

She had lost custody of her children: Recovery from alcoholism

Jennifer Boeth Whipple, 53, is a journalist who arrived at Delray Beach, Florida, in the clutches of alcoholism in 1998. Jennifer said she "took to heart" during her third effort at rehabilitation – "that some people have to change their lives completely to maintain their sobriety."

She had lost custody of her children.

She stuck around in Delray Beach, following a carefully phased program known as the Florida Model, from residential treatment to a halfway house and a "recovery job" at Home Depot. Eventually she bought a condominium and worked for an art dealer.

For six years, she said, she "felt very safe here, surrounded by people who'd been through what I’d been through" – detoxing in the same roach-infested apartments, cycling through recovery centers familiar to New Yorkers, like Silver Hill or Four Winds.

Then a year ago, "after I'd gotten my sea legs," she returned to New York City, where her son lives with his father.

Advice to people struggling with a drinking problem: It might take more than one attempt to get and stay sober.

Browse for related stories in the index at the very bottom of this page, or read another Delray Beach recovery story.

Thanks to Jane Gross for the source article in the Nov. 16 issue of the New York Times.

He squandered his trust fund: Recovery oasis for heroin users

Whitney Tower, 56, a scion of the Whitney, Vanderbilt and Drexel fortunes, squandered his trust fund and sold family treasures to support a $1,000 a day heroin habit before landing in a tough-love facility near Delray Beach, Florida seven years ago and never leaving. "If I went back to New York I'd be dead in two weeks," he said.

Whitney favors linen suits and drops the names of the fast crowd he once ran with.

But now, after three decades in and out of treatment, his social life these days is dinner at home with sober friends who have settled in Delray Beach in what experts consider the recovery capital of America. He is studying addiction counseling, and he works as an unpaid intern at a local drug treatment center.

Advice: Consider working as a volunteer, like Whitney, to help others with your condition.

Read one of our thyroid story, or read more from the source article by Jane Gross in the Nov. 16 issue of the New York Times.