“I threw heavy flower pots through the glass front door and begged the police officer to shoot me. Sadly, the beast that is addiction took over. As terrifying as it was to unearth such a deep truth about myself, suddenly everything began to click. I began to recognize why I couldn’t stay sober for even an hour. I was not the woman I was raised to be.”
‘It took an overdose to come to the conclusion I was not the young woman I was raised to be. Suddenly, everything began to click.’: Transgender man advocates for support in the ‘addicted trans community’
‘We placed my son in the back of a black SUV and said goodbye. I lost all hope. Just before I drank myself to death, I found out I was pregnant.’: Mom’s harrowing journey to recovery, ‘It’s up to you to break the cycle’
“Right after I turned 15, I met the absolute love of my life. Apparently, we were never really exclusive. In the summer going into my senior year, I got pregnant. I learned alcohol numbed the pain. After my daughter’s father left without telling me, I started partying more. He had no more fight in him. Days after his 4th birthday, we brought him home on hospice care.”
‘I began violently shaking. Through my locked jaw, I muttered, ‘I’m addicted to heroin.’ My family had no idea.’: Woman overcomes addiction, ‘I am so thankful for this new life’
“I was living two separate lives. ‘Just this one time,’ I told myself as I inhaled my first line of cocaine one month after my best friend’s funeral. I would wake up, do a line. Go to class, do a line in the bathroom. Go home, do a line. Then came the needle. I felt the warm release of the heroin shooting through my veins. My stepdad found me. I couldn’t move, my body instantly got cold. ‘Oh, sweetheart. You don’t look like an addict.’ I lay there for what felt like forever, fading in and out of consciousness.”
‘Not today, honey, Mommy doesn’t feel good.’ I was lying, manipulating, hiding how much I was drinking. I had terrible anxiety.’: Woman relapses due to brother’s ‘tragedy’ cancer diagnosis, insists ‘relapse is not a death sentence. You can come back stronger than ever!’
“I blacked out, refusing to leave the shop. My husband had to carry me out. I woke up to use the bathroom the next day, but I didn’t make it. I fainted. It was the scariest thing I’ve ever experienced. I panicked. ‘I can’t see!’ My temperature was dropping. He called an ambulance. My parents had just brought our kids home and here I was, being taken out on a stretcher. I could not make my children witness such a horror. I HAD TO STOP.”
‘I remember feeling venom shoot through me. I fell into a deep, incoherent state as my veins pulsated into my head.’: Woman celebrates 6 years of sobriety after heroin addiction
“I had 4 children, 3 triplets. Truthfully, none of them were planned. The chaos I created was unraveling at the seams. I was leaving a women’s prison to live in a homeless shelter because not a single person wanted me paroled to their home. If I felt I didn’t belong, I’d draw a line of cocaine. As the need for the next high got more severe, so did the consequences. I wanted the heroin to remove the dirty feeling on my skin.”
‘She laid in a pretty blue dress with a scarf around her neck to cover her scars. She was cold and stiff. It didn’t look like her, but I knew it was.’: Woman loses 19-year-old sister to suicide at airport on way to rehab, ‘She was so close. She was on the plane’
“He was sobbing. ‘Abigail…’ My heart dropped. ‘Dad, what the heck is going on?’ He responded, ‘I think your sister was arrested. She called and said the cops were after her. Then the call dropped. I haven’t heard from her since.’ She was last seen at the Denver International Airport. My dad escorted her to security where she was catching a plane to rehab. The reality of what happened hurts too much to face. I find myself getting so angry at her. She was so close. She was on the plane.”
‘My life’s over and I’m expecting a baby!’ I fell asleep behind the wheel and didn’t remember crashing.’: Woman gets sober after almost losing her daughter, says struggles were ‘worth it’ in the end
“’Do NOT stop at the liquor store!’ Yet I always found myself in the parking lot. My grandmother told me, ‘You are going to hell.’ I came into work each morning smelling of tequila and bad decisions.”
‘I smoked pot to get over my brother’s death. To put it mildly, it was torture.’: Man overcomes smoking addiction, claims that’s when ‘life truly began’
“I’ve heard many people say you don’t go through marijuana withdrawals. That’s ABSURD. I’d literally break into sweats at the sight of food and I would randomly barf every time I left town without weed. I mean, I wouldn’t dare bring weed to the airport, right? So, to make things better, I chose to not leave my house again! What an excellent idea, right? I truly thought it was the remedy to make things better. Quitting marijuana was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.”
‘One day I took a lot of medicine with the intention of putting a stop to the chaos. I was very drunk and don’t remember much of the rescue.’
“Then a miracle happened!”
‘At 19, I got pregnant and relapsed. My son wasn’t enough to stop me. I continued to use behind his back. I went back to hiding it, and was caught by my son’s father.’
“My friend introduced me to a better way to get high: injecting. He left when I got pregnant. I looked at myself in the mirror. ‘What are you doing? You are worth so much more.’ I wanted my kids to have love, but first, I had to find it myself.”
