I was homeless.
I was living on the streets, living in abandoned houses, buildings,
wherever I could find shelter.
I lost absolutely everything in my life.
I was hanging out with, you know, a lot of the wrong people. My family wasn't around.
I,
I didn't love myself. I didn't even like myself, wasn't anywhere close to that.
So
therefore the people that I surrounded myself with,
I felt like I didn't deserve any better than that.
My way out was actually
when I got arrested,
I was in county for a while and I still wasn't ready to change.
I still thought I could do it on my own without support of anybody.
And
after that I, I went to IBH and
that was my second time at IBH.
I think one of my biggest challenges was
at first entering the Turning Point Program and
sober living, there was a lot of people telling me what to do, how to do it,
when to do it, why to do it.
And I really struggled with that because for so long I thought I could do it on my own.
You know, I didn't know that the
help and the resources were there to actually help me.
One of the big things for me was getting a sponsor. I was always against it.
Like I, I thought that I didn't need anybody
and
that helped me. Working the steps helped me. Being at ARC really helped me.
The Friday Night ARC meetings were amazing and just the people there,
you know, were all trying to do the same thing,
you know, to do the right thing. I was excited to tell the Judge...Jillian...Megan.
You know that I, hey, I did the right thing today.
Hey, I did this, you know, and it just kept me on the right track for a long time.
I needed that. I didn't know that I needed that, but I did,
I found, you know, a sense of community there. After that, I
went into sober living in the Turning Point Program took me under their wing.
I was there for about a year.
So little by little I started to get, you know, things back in my life.
My kids started coming back around, I was able to see them
and
just again,
the sense of community that I felt with the Turning Point Trogram and with,
with ARC,
I started to get my life back a little at a time.
Coming out from under addiction.
You know, you have a new set of problems and a new set of worry. But now I know that I can
get through them. You know, I have my kids back in my life.
I have a home, I work with the community and I help people
that were in my position, you know, and I can say, hey,
I've been there,
you know, I can help you out of this. There's a way out.
I have my kids back in my life. Like I'm able to be a mom today.
I'm able to take them to, you know, their soccer games, their track, their softball,
all of those things while still taking care of myself
and helping these other people out in the community.
I never thought that
I would be doing that.
Give yourself a chance, you know, it's never too late to
start recovering.