Candy, cash, gifts: How rewards help recovery from addiction


              Harold Lewis, a recovering drug user, talks to his girlfriend on the porch of his mother's house, Tuesday, July 19, 2022 in Stratford, Conn. Lewis moved back in with his mother and older sister several months earlier. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
            
              Harold Lewis, a recovering drug user, stands for a portrait outside his mother's house, Tuesday, July 19, 2022 in Stratford, Conn. Lewis moved back in with his mother and older sister several months earlier. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
            
              Harold Lewis, a recovering drug user, stands on the porch of his mother's house, Tuesday, July 19, 2022 in Stratford, Conn. Lewis moved back in with his mother and older sister several months earlier. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
            
              Harold Lewis, a recovering drug user, takes his dose of methadone on Monday, July 18, 2022 at Liberation Programs in Bridgeport, Conn. Liberation Programs is a behavioral health organization specializing in treatment for substance use disorders. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
            
              Clinical supervisor Bobby Boback talks to client Harold Lewis, Monday, July 18, 2022 at Liberation Programs in Bridgeport, Conn. The behavioral health organization specializes in treatment for substance use disorders. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
            
              Clinical supervisor Bobby Boback scrolls through prizes while client Harold Lewis, a recovering drug user, picks paper slips out of a fishbowl, Monday, July 18, 2022 at Liberation Programs in Bridgeport, Conn. Neuroscientists have learned from imaging studies how addiction takes over the brain’s reward center, hijacking dopamine pathways and robbing people of the ability to enjoy simple pleasures. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
            
              Harold Lewis, a recovering drug user, shows a paper slip for a small prize, Monday, July 18, 2022 at Liberation Programs in Bridgeport, Conn. “Recovery should be fun because you’re getting your life back," Lewis says. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
            
              Harold Lewis, a recovering drug user, waits to pick slips of paper out of a fishbowl to win prizes, Monday, July 18, 2022 at Liberation Programs in Bridgeport, Conn. The 59-year-old former cook earned small prizes — candy, gum, gift cards, sunglasses and headphones — for attending meetings and staying in treatment for opioid addiction during a 12-week program. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
            
              Harold Lewis, a recovering drug user, arrives to his intensive outpatient treatment, Monday, July 18, 2022 at Liberation Programs in Bridgeport, Conn. For an increasing number of Americans, addiction treatment involves not only hard work, but also earning rewards for negative drug tests or showing up for counseling or group meetings. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
            
              Harold Lewis, a recovering drug user, sits on the porch of his mother's house, Monday, July 18, 2022 in Stratford, Conn. For Lewis, in recovery from opioids, a weekly prize drawing became a way for him to bring home gifts for his mother. “The prizes make me feel good," he said. “But the prizes make my mother feel great. I’m talking Tony the Tiger GREAT!” (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
            
              Harold Lewis, a recovering drug user, looks at a pair of sunglasses he won by picking paper slips with prizes written on them out of a fishbowl, Monday, July 18, 2022 at Liberation Programs in Bridgeport, Conn. “Recovery is just not all balled-up fists and clutched teeth, you know what I mean?" Lewis says. “It can be fun, where you can exhale and you can breathe and get excited — because you don’t know what you’re going to win today.” (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
Candy, cash, gifts: How rewards help recovery from addiction