A Recovering Addict Summary

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A recovering addict tells his sponsor his adventurous account of how he ended up in a mental hospital. BRIEF SYNOPSIS: LEONARD LEHMAN (20’s) a college student and aspiring writer from Ithaca College has been sober for two weeks and has just been released from a mental hospital. He meets with his sponsor, HARRY, who wants to know how Leonard ended up in the psychiatric hospital. Leonard recalls he just woke up there, but doesn’t remember how he got there. In a series of flashbacks, Leonard recounts his story to Harry. It all began the day he left Ithaca. He was planning on going to his parents’ home for the summer. His college girlfriend, FELICITY, decided that it would be a good idea not to contact each other for the summer. Her theory is that the distance will …show more content…

He wants to get back to Ithaca and ask her to marry him. Clarissa becomes concerned when Leonard begins acting oddly. He swears that there are spiders in the clock. Leonard returns to his parents’ home, where he becomes even more paranoid and is convinced that his parents are body doubles and that there’s a tracking device inside his body. He begins to cut himself open looking for it. His parents are horrified and call the police. Leonard is transported to the mental hospital. He’s told he might be psychotic, but he doesn’t believe he is, because he would know if he’s crazy or not. It’s pointed out that no psychotic patient thinks they are. He’s startled to learn that he might be schizophrenic. A Blind Man tells him, he’ll return “home,” but his troubles have not ended. Leonard realizes the Blind Man refers to Ithaca as his home. He just wants to get out and return to Ithaca and find Felicity. Back in the present, Harry is impressed by Leonard’s story. He’s curious to know what Leonard considers to be his “higher power.” It can’t be Felicity or a person. Leonard thinks for a moment and then exclaims: