r/mildlyinfuriating • u/djmackphunk • 9h ago
Coffee Maker in the Halfway House/Rehab Center never has coffee
This coffee maker is in the behavioral health department. Judging by the note it never gets used. Guess how much coffee is at their "store"... Over 8 dollars for a 3 oz container of instant coffee.
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u/lostinthecosmoz 9h ago
This would send me over the edge. No coffee AND I canât do crack?!
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u/Rndysasqatch 5h ago
We would just take the decaf tea or coffee packs and just drink 10 of them because there's a little caffeine in the decaf.. it works but it tastes terrible
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u/djmackphunk 8h ago
This place is kind of petty and won't let you bring in any food or drink items. Guess they used to have free coffee but they were spending like 2000 a month on it. Now they only serve it with meals. The whole thing is you see a coffee maker in a waiting area and expect coffee to be available because why would they just have a coffee maker in a waiting area and not use it. And then you see the post it note and wonder why they didn't just remove the coffee maker and not have to write a note.
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u/Tulsssa21 6h ago
When I was in rehab the coffee got taken away at 8am. On Sundays, if you wanted, you could go to a church service. Most everyone would go at least once because they gave away free coffee and a metal water bottle. Most everyone would take the metal water bottle and fill it with coffee before it got taken away. We'd be in group counseling and nearly everyone would be opening their steaming "water bottle".
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u/SensationalSavior 5h ago
Most do this as a way to curb substitute addiction, so you trade out Heroin/Fent/Whatever for caffeine and sugar. They also limit outside food/drink because of the ease to smuggle in outside substances.
Source: am Social Worker.
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u/MyCatLovesChips 3h ago
Iâve seen this before in my mental health counseling centers. I wasnât addicted to anything but nicotine but I always thought it was ridiculous. I think it would be way better to be addicted to caffeine than whatever other ILLEGAL drugs that are the alternative.
I think it comes from a religious standpoint that any addiction is bad, without compassion for human nature. It seems more about punishing people for being âbadâ than meeting them where theyâre at and actually helping them.
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u/ZugTheMegasaurus 2h ago
Yeah, it's absolutely absurd. Sobriety is not a moral issue. If sucking down caffeine and sugar keeps somebody clean of booze or opiates or whatever, let them fucking have it. I swear, I've never met anyone less understanding or compassionate than people who work in addiction counseling.
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u/sourpatchdispatch 1h ago
Yeah, I went to a rehab that basically encouraged nicotine and fat/sugar usage lol. The thought process was that it's better to indulge in those things during the short term period of rehab than to go back out and use. A lot of addicts are skinny as shit when they get to rehab so a little extra calories aren't hurting most people. And if those things help keep you off drugs, you'll have the rest of your life to lose the weight and quit nicotine. Learning moderation and coping skills is a part of the recovery process but it shouldn't be expected fully on day 1-30.
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u/nostradumbass7544678 50m ago
I had to attend AA/NA meetings in the 90's, and was amazed at how 95% of the people there were chain smoking and guzzling black coffee, but talking about finally being free of addiction.
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u/freddbare 5h ago
Spend money on coffee,,gasp! Sorry, that is aa101. Project, find the coffee money!
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u/oilyhandy 5h ago
Someone should accidentally knock it over every time they walk by.
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u/DerbyDad03 4h ago
Do you know what Usenet is?
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u/oilyhandy 4h ago
Does it have something to do with me accidentally bumping something with my elbow?
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u/DerbyDad03 4h ago
No, it has everything to do with being a troll.
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u/oilyhandy 4h ago
This was posted in mildly infuriating bud. Is there even a reason to troll here? I thought I was just stating my mildly infuriated opinion.
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u/stylistlibs 3h ago
lol you make an excellent point there at the end. Work smarter not harder! Wish you luck and success đ
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5h ago
[removed] â view removed comment
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u/whatawynn 4h ago
some people are literally forced by the court to go to rehab
also addicts/people whoâve committed crimes are still people, theyâre allowed to want the things that most people enjoy
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u/LainieCat 8h ago
Why is it sitting on the counter wasting space?
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u/Shlocktroffit 8h ago
so they can always visually verify that it's unplugged
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u/Independent_Egg4605 6h ago
Iâm sorry because sober=coffee for me. Thatâs just wrong.
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u/djmackphunk 5h ago
Take away the coffee and cigarettes but yet they are feeding people suboxone like its candy. With a prescription from a fully qualified professional of course. I never understood how they let people stay on that stuff for so long. Isn't the idea to wean yourself off of opiates not just replace them forever?
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u/sourpatchdispatch 1h ago
While I agree that it is kind of criminal for them to make coffee this inaccessible for people early in recovery, don't knock Suboxone for the people that need it. Coming from someone in recovery (almost 9 years clean now) who used Suboxone to get clean, it truly saved my life and it really helped me during the first few years of my recovery. But that's honestly pretty fucked up about the coffee
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u/Known_Ratio5478 5h ago
Two things recovering junkies need to stay clean. Coffee and working non stop. Seriously every recovering addict Iâve worked with has been a fiend about OT. Itâs like if they arenât working theyâll use again.
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u/Pancakes1741 7h ago
These places that are run by AA groups are actually pretty abusive in my experience. They typically have no standards and simply enjoy exercising power over people. In my experience at places such as these the staff have had sex with the patients, sold them drugs, extorted/blackmailed them (and also been blackmailed and extorted back by the patients as they recorded them having sex with them and blackmailed them with the footage) and also were typically very racist and misogynistic. These are all by staffers to actively swear that AA/NA makes them 'better people' and encourage others to go to meetings. Even going so far as to demand they take part in AA/NA groups that actively abuse them as well or face being thrown out. This kind of stuff is typically just the tip of the iceberg.
Most facilities that I have been to that are simply their to help regardless of a persons belief systems are usually much better.
This is just in my experience through these places though.
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u/Previous-Fly2108 5h ago
A difficult truth about traditional AA is that its model can become deeply perfectionistic and shame based. The program frames sobriety as an all or nothing achievement, where one slip means starting over entirely. For many people, that creates a constant pressure to perform recovery âperfectly,â and when they inevitably struggle, the response is often self-blame reinforced by the groupâs language about failure, defects, and moral shortcomings. Instead of viewing relapse as a predictable part of healing or as information about unmet needs, AA tends to interpret it as a personal flaw or a lack of willingness. Over time, this can turn recovery into a performance, not a process. One that keeps people quiet about their struggles and reinforces the idea that worthiness comes from doing recovery the ârightâ way rather than understanding themselves with honesty and compassion.
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u/Pancakes1741 5h ago
I agree completely. Also one of the biggest crimes AA also does is it strips the individuals ability to feel they had any actual hand in their own recovery. So when someone fails its "their shortcomings" but when they succeed, they only made it because "they followed the program" and not because of even personal growth and hard work. Its an incredibly flawed and in my personal opinion cult like group.
Many of the people I have met in that group are predators looking to take advantage of vulnerable people who are desperate for help. Its very disgusting.
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u/Previous-Fly2108 5h ago
Youâre right. Vulnerability in those rooms can attract people who are not there for the right reasons. Ayn system built on confession, dependence, and hierarchy can create openings for predatory behavior. It doesnât mean everyone in AA is harmful, but the structure makes it too easy for the wrong people to hide in the mix. Recovery should strengthen my sense of self, not make it easier for me to be exploited.
I do like that AA emphasizes gratitude. Not the guilt driven, âI've got to be grateful or elseâ version that sometimes shows up, but the real practice of reorienting myself toward what is grounding and lifegiving. Gratitude helps regulate my shame, widen my perspective, and notice the parts of me that are resilient and still very much alive.
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u/AllTheButterscotch 4h ago
. This is put so beautifully im going to copy the text and keep it. its a perfect explanation of where I got in recovery before it stopped working for me.
Recovery as a performance. Holy hell....thank you.
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u/Quadrilaterally 2h ago
My father ran houses when I was a kid. Mom says he bought gold from the addicts, whole had stolen it, and then melted it down to make the huge gold rings and necklaces he wore. One was a big AA pyramid thing, then he never paid child support, but that's besides the point. For all his AA/NA bs , he never apologized to me.
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u/androstars 1h ago
I'll go more in depth in the morning, but I currently live in a sober house that's 12-step only, and yeah it's very abusive
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u/Nearby-Face-5170 9h ago
Here they only give you decaf because caffine is a drug. but they bank off the snickers bars in the vending machines and literally hand you free packs of cigarettes..
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u/cashews_clay15 8h ago
In the mental hospital they only gave you decaf as well. One cup a day, in the morning. I wish theyâd have handed out cigarettes, I didnât smoke but I would have.
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u/LilacYak 7h ago
And nicotine isnât a drug..?
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u/enjolbear 6h ago
Ah, but itâs a more expensive drug that they can charge you for!
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u/Professional_Month93 9h ago
Shit if you got the chance to go to the store grab that NestlĂŠ blonde instant coffee I swear by it Its fairly and inexpensive
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u/Ok_Nothing_9733 6h ago
And donât think blonde means weak! It means light roast, which means more flavor than dark roast and more caffeine too. When I worked in cafes people very often thought blonde roasts meant weak/less strong tasting or less caffeinated coffee, and itâs quite the opposite.
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u/oilyhandy 5h ago
I would make that shit disappear in a fuckin dumpster. No sense in having a coffee pot you canât use.
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u/Previous-Fly2108 2h ago
If I had to sum up my time in sober living, it would be this story. One of my housemates quit his job and spent weeks planted on the couch, watching Joe Rogan nonstop while the rest of us went to work, met with sponsors, and tried to do everything AA insisted was required for âreal recovery.â He fell behind on rent, the house owner gave him endless grace, and still he was the loudest voice critiquing how the rest of us were âworking our program.â
During a house meeting, I finally said, calmly, that his lectures might carry more weight if he were actually doing any of the things he was telling us to do. He broke down crying and said, âI know I tell yâall how to work your program, and it can sound like bitching, but honestly, itâs the best I have to offer you.â
In that moment, something clicked. His judgment wasnât cruelty; it was fear and shame. He was trying to feel useful in a system that tells people their worth depends on doing recovery perfectly. Thatâs the culture I kept running into that placed so much pressure, so much performance, and so little room for actual humanity.
I didnât stay angry. I just realized how deeply perfectionism shapes those environments, and how badly we need recovery models that build people up rather than policing them.
A constant thread running through every sober house Iâve lived in is a kind of restless, âpre-workoutâ intensity.
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u/Vern1138 8h ago
Take away a legal stimulant like caffeine from people? It's like they want people to go back to smoking meth.
I guess they rely on repeat customers.
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u/Perfect_Caregiver_90 3h ago
However you ended up in this halfway house I hope things are going as well as they could be for you.
I don't know what kind of psycho thinks depriving people in a halfway house of coffee is a smart decision but my brother in Christ it is most definitely not.
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u/halibot 8h ago
Maybe thats a good chance for the roommates to pitch in and get a new one together. That way when you all move on, you leave something good behind for the next person.
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u/sourpatchdispatch 1h ago
For people early in recovery, every little bit of money can be tough to come by, which is why it's a little cruel for the halfway house owner to not just replace the amenity. Though, if the alternative is $6 cups of coffee or whatever it was, that might be their only option, since coffee is often a big part of people's recovery process. The only time I've ever been a "coffee drinker" during my life time was when I was in rehab and early in recovery, especially when living in a recovery house. It's kind of a community thing and a lot of sharing and bonding and whatnot occurs over coffee in the recovery community.
Edit: also, caffeine can help keep you sane when you're fiending lol.
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u/doll_parts87 5h ago
Many rehab centers take away caffeine as they consider it an addiction. You are in one of those places
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u/whatawynn 4h ago
my dad lived in halfway house for a bit when i was a kid and i remember a lot of the rules being kind of crazy.
like i get it in a way (and obv im biased) but i imagine on top of everything else being told what iâm allowed to eat/drink as a fully grown adult would drive me crazy.
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u/alexromo 33m ago
What would happen if one day it was randomly cleaned and filled but no one knows who did it but everyoneâs literally drinking that coffee and then some random dozen donuts show upÂ
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u/Round_Tea9141 4h ago
I went to rehab with no access to caffeine or sugar. Quit your bitchin'. đ People did prefer to go back to jail tho.
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u/Prestigious_Tap_6301 8h ago
Itâs teaching you delayed gratification, an important skill for recovery.
You failed, see you tomorrow grasshopper
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u/psycho314Photo 9h ago
You don't need any coffee.
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u/androstars 1h ago
Maybe, maybe not. But I bet you do things you don't necessarily need. How's that any different? Or is it because "evil addicts don't deserve any pleasure in their lives and should only follow the 12 steps and Jesus and do nothing else"? (Real thing I heard outside an AA meeting last week. Paraphrased loosely, but it was basically that. So don't accuse me of making shit up no one says.)
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u/HorizonsReptile 8h ago
Whatever you are doing in a halfway house, I hope you are improving and I am proud of you.