EDITOR’S NOTE: Sarnia-Lambton is struggling with an unprecedented addiction crisis, generating plenty of news about overdoses and homelessness. But sometimes there is recovery. And it’s anticipated that new government investment in local services and facilities will bring additional relief. The award-winning team of journalist Cathy Dobson and photographer Glenn Ogilvie set out this past winter to find individuals who have experienced serious alcohol and drug addictions, and who found their own path to recovery. Below, you can find the full supplement which appeared in The Independent May 14, 2026. Watch here for further stories.

Cathy Dobson/Local Journalism Inititiave

Daniel Tye takes a thoughtful pause before explaining where he found the strength to overcome 14 years of drug and alcohol abuse.

It took a certain combination of events to truly commit to recovery.

Uppermost, his mom was getting remarried and he wanted to give her the gift of his sobriety.

Then, by chance, he came across a photo of himself as a little boy and it hit him hard. He wondered where that happy kid had gone.

At the age of 27, he realized he didn’t want to die.

And Tye knew that dying was a real possibility after abusing alcohol and drugs from the age of 13.
“The main thing was I didn’t want to hurt my family,” said Tye, the oldest of three boys who describes his early childhood as really happy.

“I had parents who loved me. Everything was great for a long time,” he said. Sitting at his mom’s kitchen table in Point Edward, he chooses his words carefully.

He’s welcome to live at his mom’s now, but that wasn’t always the case. There was a time he couldn’t be there unsupervised. He’d stolen from her too many times to feed his habit and couldn’t be trusted.
That’s painful to admit, said Tye, now 34. His mom means the world to him. She is a big part of why he fought for himself and entered recovery.

Tye was a bright, straight A student in Grade 8 at Bridgeview School when he started drinking following the breakdown of his parents’ marriage.

“My world came crashing down hard. I had a whole lot of feelings I didn’t know how to handle. It did something to me mentally.

“I decided I was done with being a kid. If I did the things adults do, like party, I could go on. I was up for anything.”

Staying busy and drunk numbed his emotions.

Alcohol was augmented by a lot of marijuana. He played football at SCITS and said he played better hung over.

“I had fun for a while. It was a good time. I had friends from all over and I liked to drink on the weekend and needed people to be around me.

“I just didn’t know the pain I was in and didn’t want to talk about anything.”

In Grade 11, Tye tried the addictive painkiller OxyContin.

“It grabbed ahold of me. I wanted that feeling all the time,” he said. “I felt like Dan 2.0, like I was enhanced, like a super hero.” That lead to Fentanyl, which is significantly more potent than OxyContin and has replaced heroin as the most lethal street drug in Ontario.

Despite multiple attempts to stop on his own and interventions from family and friends, the drug use continued. Still, he managed to graduate from high school and became a customs broker.

“I denied I was an addict. I just said I had a problem but it wasn’t that bad,” he recalled.
Life continued to spiral. He used opiates daily just to feel okay. At his worst, he slept in his car or couch surfed at friends’ homes.

Several times, he tried to get away from that lifestyle and went to stay with his father who had moved to the U.S. But it never stuck. The dream of going to university disappeared.

“I lost a lot of opportunity due to being sick and not wanting to ask for help,” he said.

“I was a functioning addict. I could hold a conversation, hold down a job. That’s the worst kind of addict. I used every day and had no other human experience outside of that.

“I had zero hope.”

But then his mom started making wedding plans. “So for a wedding gift I was, like, maybe I’ll get you your son back. I’ll try something different.”

Going cold turkey didn’t work. “It was terrible. For two weeks, I was so sick, and then I’d fall right back into it,” he recalled.

He also tried methadone, a long-lasting synthetic opioid used under medical supervision to replace short-acting opioids like fentanyl or OxyContin. But he didn’t want to be addicted to methadone either.
“It’s more controlled and it’s better than being on the streets,” Tye said. “But withdrawal from that stuff is way worse.”

Several days in withdrawal at Bluewater Health’s detox unit didn’t do it either.

The seven-bed unit opened at the hospital in January 2018 when Tye was beginning to take his recovery seriously.

The unit is designed to help patients with addictions for up to a week. But Tye needed at least two weeks to get the opioids out of his system. He needed long term residential support unavailable in Sarnia until this year.

For months he suffered through a nasty cycle.

“I was so scared,” he said. He’d spend a few days in detox, leave and start abusing immediately. Then he’d try again. Sometimes a detox bed was available. Sometimes not.

“It was hard. They knew me by my first name,” he said.

Then one day he came across a photo of himself on display at the Point Edward Arena, just blocks from where he grew up. It was taken in Grade 4 when he was a class leader for an anti-drug campaign aimed at elementary students.

There he was, dressed in a shirt three sizes too big with “Just Say No” printed across his chest. “I saw the photo and thought, ‘What happened to that kid? Where did that kid go?’ I felt a little shift and realized I wanted to live still. I didn’t want to die.”

His determination grew.

Four months later, he was offered a bed at a 19-day residential program at Westover Treatment Centre in Thamesville where he learned about 12-step programs.

“I left there with 26 days clean and I hadn’t been 26 days clean since I was 13,” he said. “I thought maybe there’s a chance.”

He found support at Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous and a program called Red Path at The Inn of the Good Shepherd.

He abstained for 17 months until a doctor prescribed opioids following a procedure. Tye found himself right back at it.

“I blew up my life again.”

It took three more trips to detox and two more to rehab. All of it was hard work.

On Feb. 22, Tye celebrated three years of sobriety. He’s got full-time employment doing industrial inspection, volunteers as a Big Brother, and attends 12-step programs regularly. He sets goals and feels optimistic about the future.

“I know now that life is not for me. It’s been years of learning how to live and letting go of all the stuff I bottled up,” he said.

“Recovery is available for everybody. You just have to really be honest with yourself. Be patient with yourself.

“It doesn’t happen overnight.”

Where to find help

• Alcoholics Anonymous – 519-337-5211 www.aasarnialambton.com
• Narcotics Anonymous – 1-800-573-0920 www.orscna.org
• Canadian Mental Health Lambton Kent – 519-337-5411 www.lambtonkent.cmha.ca
• 24/7 Canadian Mental Health Crisis Line – 519-336-3445 or 1-800-307-4319
• Drug Addiction Hotline – 1-800-721-3232
• Distress Line (Family Counselling Centre) – 519-336-3000
• Bluewater Health Community Addiction Support – outpatient and walk-in services, crisis intervention, counselling, treatment referrals, for people in Sarnia-Lambton who struggle with substance abuse. Phone 519-332-4673 or email possible@bluewaterhealth.ca. Location: Bluewater Health, Level 6, Russell Building, 89 Norman St. Sarnia.
• Bluewater Health Acute Withdrawal Management – includes inpatient, 7-bed unit for detox for three – five days. Self referral. Counselling. 24/7 519-464-4487
• Bluewater Health Ryan’s House Stabilization Facility, a second-stage withdrawal management facility. Offers 12 beds for men and women over 16 to stay up to one month for early recovery following detox. 306 Exmouth St. Sarnia.
• HART (Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment) Hub – recently opened in Sarnia. Two locations. 30-bed residential facility (up to 18 months) considered the third stage for recovery in Sarnia-Lambton, following detox and Ryan’s House. 275 Wellington St. (formerly SCITS high school).
• HART Hub drop-in at 210 Lochiel St. offers recovery support services, showers, laundry, a kitchen, health care referrals, help finding housing, employment, and mental health supports.
• Suicide Crisis Helpline – 9-8-8 (call or text)
• Community Health Integrated Care (CHIC Team) Daily, on-scene interventions, rapid response, withdrawal management.
• MobileCare – Community Health Outreach. Travels across urban and rural S-L with free, walk in services. No appointment required. Primary care, mental health care, addictions services, withdrawal management services and referrals. 1-866-299-7447. www.sl.mobilecareclinic.ca.
• Bluewater Methadone Clinic S-L at 118 Victoria St. in Sarnia. 519-337-5000.
• Chippewas of Kettle and Stony Point Health Services for mental health and addictions at 6275 Indian Lane, Lambton Shores. 519-786-5647.
• Youth Wellness Hub – 190 Front St. for ages 12 – 25 and their families. Crisis/Walk in support, case management, psychotherapy, peer support, addiction services, nurse practitioner, drop in activity groups, fitness activities, family support, housing support and vocational services. 519-491-1466
• Redpath (Inn of the Good Shepherd on John St. Sarnia) Addictions treatment using an Indigenous specific model. Clinical and cultural approaches in a group setting. Call 519-344-1746 ext. 338.
• Lambton College personal and mental health counselling – available free to all full and part-time students.

Regional longer term residential rehab facilities:

• Westover Treatment Centre in Thamesville, call 1-800-721-3232;
• Renascent Addiction Centre in Toronto, call 1-866-232-1212;
• Residence at Homewood and Health Centre in Guelph, call 1-438-258-5460;
• Brentwood Recovery House in Windsor, call 519-253-2441;
• Hope Place in Milton, call 905-878-1120.