'IT'S COOL TO BE CLEAN': ORLEANS MAN CONQUERS ADDICTION THANKS TO CANAL HOUSE

ORLEANS - Dan Sullivan can smile.

That may seem routine, but the smile is a symbol of how far Sullivan has
come since that dark day when he overdosed on crack cocaine and fell on the
floor, knocking his top teeth out and breaking his nose.

"I looked in the mirror, and my disease told me it was going to be OK," he
said. "That was the first time I thought I wasn't going to be OK."

Sullivan has a lot to smile about these days. The 47-year-old has been
clean and sober for more than two years, spending the last 18 months in
Canal House in Orleans, a sober house run by the Lower Cape Community
Development Corp. in partnership with Gosnold on Cape Cod and the Orleans
Housing Authority.

He started his own paint and wallpaper business, After Five, in April, and
restarted a music career that had been derailed by his drinking. His blues
band, The Coolerators, is playing at Harry's on Main Street in Hyannis Nov.
11 and 18.

"It's really cool to be clean, and you can never be too cool," Sullivan said.

Getting hooked

Sullivan said he started drinking at age 15, "just like anybody, camping
out, drinking with friends and buddies" - but his problems really started
when he started playing in bars at 16.

"I was hanging out with alcoholics and drug addicts at a young age," he
said. "I got a lot of bad information on how to live life."

Alcohol was Sullivan's drug of choice, followed by marijuana, but he also
dabbled in amphetamines and pills, as well as LSD while he was in college.
He also snorted cocaine for two or three years after college, but stopped.

"I couldn't play and snort coke; it was just ugly," he said.

However, once he got out of the music business at the age of 40, Sullivan
discovered smoking crack cocaine.

"That was the beginning of the end for me," he said. "It sent me to my
bottom pretty quickly, five years."

During his days of drinking and doing drugs, Sullivan said he went through
a lot of relationships that he called "turbulent and unhealthy." He was
married for two years, even giving up drinking for a year and a half during
that time.

"It was to save my marriage, supposedly, but I was just trying to prove I
wasn't an alcoholic," he said. "I doubled up on my drugs."

Eventually, Sullivan said drugs and alcohol cost him not only his music
career, but any relationships he had.

"It became obvious to a lot of people early on, but I was going to do what
I wanted to do," he said. "People didn't want me around. That's where the
disease wants you, isolated."

When the disease made him homeless, Sullivan decided it was time to get
help. The turning point was the night he spent in a homeless shelter in
Framingham, which scared him because there were people there even worse off
than he was.

"I realized at that point that I could go even lower, and that's when I
asked for help," he said.

Getting clean

Sullivan said "the state of Massachusetts saved my butt," as it paid for
his detox and stay in North Cottage, an intense treatment program and
halfway house in Norton. He can remember the dates he was in North Cottage
- - Sept. 22, 2002 to March 3, 2003.

"These were big events in life, because I had a life, or I had a chance at
life," he said.

Before getting help, Sullivan said he thought he was going to die.

"I didn't see any way out," he said. "But that was doing it by myself. I
thought I had to do it all by myself."

Sullivan learned about Canal House through a flier he saw while in his
counselor's office at North Cottage.

"I saw Canal House and I said, 'I want to go here,'" he said.

Canal House provides housing for recovering addicts as they make their way
back into independent living. Each of the five men and three women who live
there has a separate bedroom and uses a shared living room, kitchen and
bathroom. The house manager lives on-site.

Potential tenants have to be sober for three months to be eligible to live
at the house.

"Our experience has been you need to have that foundation here," said
Cheryl Gayle, director of housing programs for the Lower Cape CDC.

Tenants develop services plans and goals with a case manager and must work
or volunteer 20 hours per week or go to school. They also must agree to
random drug and alcohol testing.

Since Canal House begin in the spring of 1998, Gayle said 24 clients have
moved to other locations, although not everyone has been successful.

"That's part of the nature of disease, for relapse to happen," she said.

If a tenant does relapse, Gayle said Canal House tries to arrange for
treatment, and the person can reapply if he or she regains sobriety for
three months.

According to Gayle, people are staying longer because of the difficulty in
finding affordable housing. Previously, she said they stayed nine months to
a year.

"Now it's quite common for people to stay a year," she said. "For most
people, two years, it's time to move on."

Sullivan plans on leaving Canal House, but whether the topic is moving, his
music or his business, he said he does not get caught up in thinking too
much about the future.

"What's the most important thing I can do today?" he asked. "Tomorrow takes
care of itself at that point."

Canal House has an opening for a female tenant, but always accepts
applications for a waiting list. For information, call Cheryl Gayle at
508-240-7873, ext. 17.