I got to Oriana House
because I had
a serious drug problem.
It was out of control.
I knew that my family was in jeopardy. I wanted to stop getting high.
I just didn't know how to stop getting high. I
was suspicious of everyone who said they were clean
because there's no way they could be clean.
What do they do, drink a beer every now and then? I didn't understand it.
I just thought I was different.
I'm gonna tell you something
about this Turning Point Program.
They have a unique
structure and
team.
It starts with the judge.
Then you have a probation officer,
you have a case worker,
Then you even have a recovery coach.
You have everything you need.
And when you start struggling,
they don't want to lock you up.
They want to
pinpoint
why you were doing what you were doing.
And then you
have a relapse prevention plan.
They create these certain plans on paper.
It's very intricate.
And these people really do care for you.
They're not doing it because that's their job.
They're doing this because they're trying to help you.
And it's personal,
it is personal. They even have psychologists
that they refer you to.
They say, "I think you might need some mental help and check out some things."
And that was the road
that helped me out a lot because
it wasn't that I was getting high, it was
why I was getting high.
I had to go back to some places that were very dark in my past,
and started when I was about five or six years old.
And I had to feel comfortable talking to that individual at
Oriana House.
We laid
some things out.
We revisited those painful memories.
I was free from that.
-Free from that.
I didn't feel like I was unworthy anymore.
I knew that I was worthy, and I started loving myself again.
And it was
a beautiful thing once I found out.
I learned the difference between feelings and thoughts.
I was angry. I learned the difference between
aggression and assertiveness.
Different things that were just words and I thought they all meant the same things
but they had totally different meanings.
That was important in my life. And I was able to identify
relapses before they come and understand when I get angry
when I feel in certain ways that maybe I need
some peace and some moments of prayer and some time
for myself. I learned
not to spend so much time up in my head,
to be around people, to be connected to people.
Because I was in the environment of imprisonment for so long,
staying away from people is how you survive.
So I brought that same mentality. I learned that
everything had to change but not all at once, a little bit at a time.
And I learned to trust other people. Everyone doesn't have a game or
trying to manipulate you. To learn to trust other people.