For graduates at the Hofstra University event, staying sober is the highest honor

Erin Dutton has been “a self-confessed alcoholic” for nearly 25 of her 42 years.

“Since I was 16 years old … I’ve been in a 12-step program,” said Dutton, a Brooklyn native who now lives in Mastic, of the Alcoholics Anonymous recovery process. But over the years and decades, “it had become something that took me away from my family, my children, my then-husband, my brothers, my sisters, everyone.”

In early 2023, Dutton had been homeless in Manhattan for nine months. She knew she had to change her life to keep living it, so she made the decision to try to stay sober.

Celebrated sobriety

Inside a Hofstra University auditorium Thursday night, Dutton and about 25 others, including some who had previously come to a similar conclusion, donned purple caps and gowns for a graduation-style ceremony that marked his several days and months of sobriety over the past year.

Phoenix House New York, based in Long Island City, organized the Hofstra event and oversaw the treatment programs for Dutton and the other participants. The rehabilitation took anywhere from 45 days to a calendar year, according to Phoenix House President and CEO Ann-Marie Foster.

Thursday’s ceremony was the first in more than a decade due to internal restructuring and the COVID-19 pandemic, said Foster, who has led the nonprofit since 2019. He plans organize a graduation ceremony every year from now on. It allows people in recovery to share the moment with their families, he added. Most, like Dutton’s family, carry clear memories of the darkest times.

“I know they went through a lot of distress with my disappearance and my circumstances,” Dutton said of her brother and sister-in-law who were in the audience Thursday evening.

He attributed his decision to stop drinking and use other substances to “God” or “the universe” as well as “the realization that my kids deserve a miracle to happen.”

Relief from anxiety

After a brief stint in a detox facility in Queens, Dutton was admitted to the Phoenix House New York rehab facility in Lake Ronkonkoma in March 2023. She has been clean ever since.

“They deserve to go through this tonight because they experienced the other side of my addiction,” Dutton said, referring to his family. “It’s nice for them to be able to witness that side and have relief from that anguish and that agony.”

After watching Dutton, his younger sister, cross the Hofstra stage, Joseph Hernandez said he “always knew” sobriety was possible for her. Now he’s hopeful that he “stays on the path he’s on.”

With more than 400 beds at facilities in Lake Ronkonkoma, Brooklyn and Queens, Phoenix House New York houses those in recovery in separate male and female facilities similar to college dormitories, schedules its day to provide a sense of stability and assigns them to mental health counselors. and physical health professionals, brings them together for group therapy and, if necessary, provides them with medication to curb their addictions.

Clients also partake in holistic remedies and creative outings, from yoga to art classes.

“It was to come clean,” Dutton said of his own involvement. “It was about opening your heart or your mind to a different way of life.”

While there have been recent signs of progress, with a decrease in fatal overdoses on Long Island from 2022 to 2023, according to a Newsday story at the time, opioid addiction remains a concern for Foster and others experts in public health.

“I think the number of individuals and families who have suffered at the hands of addiction and lost loved ones to addictions has been astronomical,” Foster said. “By the year 2022, we had over 100,000 Americans who died of a drug overdose.”

A job and a second chance

Since completing his rehabilitation at Phoenix House last January, Dutton has been living in supportive housing in Mastic for Suffolk residents with behavioral health issues. She said the nonprofit provided her with a scholarship to become an interim certified recovery parent advocate, as well as a job.

The job includes teaching community organizations and businesses how to use Narcan, the emergency nasal drug that can reverse an opioid overdose. Narcan has saved her life seven times, said Dutton, who plans to take the Nov. 2 state exam to become a certified attorney.

She also wants to remain a positive and permanent element in the lives of her daughters, ages 10 and 12, who live with their paternal grandmother in Brooklyn.

“I took them to Empire Adventure Park last Saturday,” he said. “We go out for breakfast on Sunday mornings, we’ll meet in the park, we’ll play, or I’ll go to my mother-in-law’s house… It’s been a miracle.”