START YOUR ENGINES

Phil Trimm moves fast and talks faster. His energy, wit and intelligence are readily evident. But back in 1996, he had decided high school was not for him. He dropped out, tried Job Corps, tried college, then, as Phil puts it, “life happened.” On his 21st birthday, he tried drugs — a choice that would start him on a decades-long struggle with addiction.

“I finally got it together four years ago. But as soon as I quit using, I came down with anxiety and depression — everything I was using the drugs to hide.”

With a talent for small engines and finding antiques, Phil earned money as a mobile mechanic and selling pieces on eBay. “I can spot good antiques,” he notes. “I worked for a pawn shop for a long time as a buyer. I’ve always been able to fall back on that.” But his mental health was deteriorating, and prescriptions were making him lethargic. “This past winter I got so depressed, bills started stacking up. I had to keep a heater running under my trailer to keep the pipes from freezing. I couldn’t pay the electric bill; it got up to $350. When I got a disconnect notice, I didn’t know what to do. Someone told me to give Neighbor by Neighbor a call. So I did, and they said, ‘No problem, done.’ I’d assumed it would be bureaucratic, but these people actually care. The next three months my electric bill went from $200 a month to $400 a month. I got behind again; I had no income at all.

"I thought, Neighbor by Neighbor already helped me once, I can’t go back again. What am I going to say? But they said no problem, we’ll take care of it. And they did. It was enough to get me out of the hole. They’re amazing.”

“The normal happiness everybody gets to feel—I hadn’t felt it for three years. Then, a month and a half ago, a switch flipped.” The difference turned out to be an adjustment in the way Phil was taking his prescribed medication. “Within two days, I was a different person,” he says. “I finally relieved the pressure, so I didn’t feel like I was in a hole all the time. It’s so much better. I’ve gotten more done in the last two months than in the last three years.”

Phil is on a drive back from the Harbor County Mission. “I go there a lot. I like looking for antiques I can resale.” He also does volunteer repairs for clients. “Today I went up to Berrien Springs. An elderly woman with health problems needed her lawnmower fixed. Since I started feeling better, I help as many people as I can. I get my kicks out of helping people — that’s what’s keeping me alive right now. There are a whole bunch of things on my list to check off. Things I put off for four years. But now, my time in ‘time out’ is over. I can come out and play again.”