Editor’s Note: September is National Drug and Alcohol Addiction Recovery Month. To celebrate the success of treatment and recovery programs, and to inspire people struggling with substance abuse and addiction, a dozen Mainers agreed to share their personal stories. Today’s three profiles conclude the “Recovery Works” series. The weekly “Finding a Fix” column resumes Oct. 5.

In 1988, at the private residential treatment program he checked into – “just to get people off my back, because I knew I didn’t really have problem” – Danny Gazette encountered “street thugs from New York City, heroin addicts and people so fried on alcohol they couldn’t string two words together.” It was intimidating. He felt like he didn’t belong there, because, again – he didn’t really have a problem.

Except for the Xanax he had been taking for more than six years, first at the prescribed dose and frequency, but lately more pills, more often. “I was spending a lot of time in bed, sleeping,” he recalled. “I was becoming very dysfunctional.”

Within a couple of days of checking in at the treatment program, he said, “I fit right in. We were all there for the same reason.”

Danny grew up in a family where alcoholism was a daily reality, and faults the Washington, D.C., psychiatrist he was seeing at the time for continuing to prescribe the anti-anxiety medication after studies showed it was addictive.

“I’m predisposed to addictive behaviors,” he said. “If someone has an addictive personality, why are you giving them tranquilizers?”

The 28-day residential program was a success, not only breaking the Xanax habit but also helping Danny to begin sorting out some longstanding psychological baggage. “I was able to put a lot of that garbage away and start thinking about what I wanted to do with my life,” he said.

Now working in the public school system and living contentedly in Farmington, Danny says people should be wary of using medications to deal with their emotions.

“The best way to deal with anxiety or depression is to go in and talk with someone,” he said. “Medication can be a helpful tool if it is used right, but the doctor really needs to know what he is doing and see the whole person before he writes that prescription.”