Hadrian, a former psychotherapist, continues to use his professional skills as a volunteer with his community
Hadrian Micciche views his work selling Street Roots as a natural progression of his long commitment to compassionate social service, as well as an extension of his personal journey back to wellness.
“I am a recovering psychotherapist,” he said with a smile. “Selling Street Roots is part of my recovery.”
He enjoys conversation with the wide variety of people who buy papers from him outside the Hollywood Library, where he sells most days except Thursday.
“The Hollywood library is the perfect turf for me,” he said. “People who go to the library like to read, and Street Roots is a quality newspaper I am proud to sell. People are eager to buy it.”
After working for 10 years in psychotherapy as a hospital on-call therapist, a community mental health worker and in private practice, Hadrian was hospitalized with bipolar disorder. After his diagnosis, he retreated.
“I spent four dark years hiding, depressed and isolated in my apartment. I couldn’t get out,” he said. “I lost at least a decade of my life to depression.”
Hadrian attributes his recovery to the efforts of his grown daughter, who urged him to move to Portland. He also credits the quality counseling he’s acquired, his meditation practice, the right medication and, ultimately, Street Roots for helping him both financially and emotionally.
“Selling the paper is another step to getting out of the house and interacting with people,” he said.
Being a vendor has also provided a reliable income and a “stress-free stepping stone to getting back to work.”
Hadrian describes himself as “currently housed, formerly homeless and, without the income from selling Street Roots, at risk.”
He also notes, with an ever-present sense of humor, that he is back where he started; he began his working life at age 12 as a newspaper boy in Rochester, N.Y., where he used to trudge through heavy snow to deliver papers.
Hadrian has found ways to use his skills from his former profession to help the community. He volunteers as a peer support counselor with Cascadia Behavioral Health and co-facilitates group discussions with seniors on issues important to them. He also serves on the “Cares and Concerns” committee at the Unitarian Universalist church in Hollywood, where he provides resources such as Street Roots’ Rose City Resource Guide and tips he’s learned through his association with Street Roots.
When he is not selling Street Roots, volunteering with the church or facilitating discussions, Hadrian creates fascinating original music videos. They can be found on his YouTube channel. He defines his polished creations as “electronica trance and dance music.”
“I have experienced more and more recovery in the last year,” Hadrian said, and the key is self-awareness and serving others. “The only tool you have when working to help people is yourself. If you are able to have a degree of self-awareness, having faced your own difficulties, you have much more capacity to help others, to be of service.”
FURTHER READING:
• Psychiatry scholar Elyn Saks talks about her own experience with mental illness
• The science of Buddhism: 'Real progress' through meditation
