Ty’s Story

Addiction treated Ty Reed no better than it treats most. In 2014, after years of alcohol and drug abuse — obscured behind the facade of a double life — Ty found himself homeless, addicted, and unemployable. Even then, it took another two years of experiencing jail, a mental commitment, and suicide attempts for him to find the desperation needed to get into recovery.

While the recovery process mandates many personal challenges, Ty discovered that his two-year gap in employment and criminal convictions presented additional obstacles, despite his excellent work history and MBA. Finding entry-level jobs was easy, but it took longer to find the path to a career.

That professional struggle inspired Ty to focus his energies on providing employment support for individuals in addiction recovery. He learned about the overwhelming amount of research that demonstrates employment is a vital component of a successful recovery program, especially for those who also have a criminal history, and set out to create a way to help in this crucial area.

In June 2020, he established Recovery Career Services, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people in recovery find and keep jobs.

How do you help people who are trying to change their lives? What do you say to them?

One of the biggest problems I had as an addict was my addiction to the belief that I knew everything — that I had it all figured out. I think part of the reason was just that it took so long for me to slide to the bottom. For several years I was using — not just drinking too much, but using crack and then meth — and I believed, somehow, that I was managing just fine. I told myself that I had it all under control. I convinced myself that I could do drugs and still manage all the other parts of my life.

But that was a lie. The outside looked pretty much the same, for a while at least, but the inside was hollowing out. I was losing everything, but I convinced myself that I was winning; that I was a winner. The story I told myself was total fiction.

Today, when I’m talking to people about addiction, I tell the real story. I don’t try to hide all the ways I messed up my life. And when I do that, they realize that I’m being honest with them, and that gives them a way to be honest with me and with themselves. That’s the only way to make a real change: see yourself clearly and be honest with yourself. So I don’t really tell everyone the same thing or have a script or anything; I just tell them the truth. I tell them my story and I show them that they aren’t alone. That’s the first step. 

How do you think your experiences help people who are struggling? 

One of the hardest things I’ve ever done was get the first job — what I call a “recovery job.” There were so many days that I just couldn’t believe that I had become a janitor. Just a few years earlier, I had all the money I needed, I had a family that loved me, I had friends, I had MBA on my resume, and the prestige that comes from working for a Fortune 50 company. 

But just a few years later, when I was emptying trash cans and cleaning floors, nobody saw that guy. Most people didn’t look at me at all. I became one of the almost invisible people that nobody thinks about when they go to work or go out with friends or go shopping or whatever. Nobody saw the MBA or the money or who I had been.

That was a hard lesson. I had to learn how to see myself differently and I had to learn how to love myself. I finally understood that nobody is ever going love you until you love yourself; until you treat yourself with dignity and respect. 

But I also had to learn how my actions impacted the people around me. I had to connect the dots between the way I acted and the things I wanted, and I had to learn how the things I wanted in the moment were not going to get me the things I wanted over the long term. And, to be perfectly honest, I don’t think I would have learned all that without my recovery job — without emptying the trash cans and cleaning the bathrooms. 

However, I know that the people who go through my program aren’t going to learn those things just because I tell them my story. They’re going to have to learn those same hard lessons at recovery jobs of their own. And that’s what, I think, my experiences can do for the people who go through my programs. It shows them that the process of recovery is not just some sort of punishment that people have to suffer through. I hope my experiences show people that no job is a waste of time if you’re learning — even when you’re just learning about yourself.

Is that why you created Recovery Career Services? 

It’s part of it. I could have learned a lot from somebody that’s been down this road. But, you know, getting sober and getting back to work is a full time job. And while there’s great support in all sorts of communities to help people get some stability in their lives, there’s also a real need to get people back to work; back to getting a paycheck and a routine and some control over their lives.

So that’s what I’m trying to provide. I want people to see that this part of the sobriety journey is possible, and that we can break it down and take one step at a time, and that they haven’t destroyed their lives. They haven’t doomed themselves to a lifetime of unfulfilling work for little pay and no security. Building trust takes time, but it’s possible. You can rebuild your career; it’s not easy, but it’s possible. My job is to help people take that journey and avoid some of the mistakes that I made when I was going through it. 

What do you want people to know? What’s the most important thing for us to understand about you and your organization?

That everyone deserves another chance. That nobody is finished — that nobody‘s story is ever finished. People can change and they deserve the opportunity to change. They don’t deserve to be judged just by their mistakes. 

I want employers to learn that everyone deserves a second chance, and that giving people that chance doesn’t cost a lot. Second chances aren’t charity; they’re an investment. When you invest in people, you create a staff that’s grateful and loyal and not just there for the money. I don’t think enough business people understand this kind of bottom-line rationale for working with people who’ve struggled in some way.

And for everyone — not just employers — I want people to know that second chances aren’t that hard to give. And all of us, at one time or another, make poor decisions. Sometimes those decisions  become a process and it just keeps going and it’s hard to stop. But the first step to recovery is always a second chance – giving people the opportunity to fix their mistakes and become stronger than they were before.