- Drugs
- Friends & Family
submitted by: Susanne Johnson
Sharona spent the past year in prison and in a rehab. She has been home for a month now, and is very excited to start her new life with a new job this week. “I’m still a work in progress”, she says, but things are already a lot better than it was before her recovery and in her active addiction.
At age 14, she started with smoking marijuana, but the real problem hit as she was prescribed pain medication for the first time in her life. She was working in a factory and it was a physically hard job that took a toll on her health, and she got opioids to treat the pain from her doctor. She was only 23-years old at this time and it got her right away; she never let go again. It grabbed her so quickly and she never was able to stop by herself again. The one and only time she tried heroin it got her right away into trouble. She was clinically dead for a few minutes and she has never touched it again.
She has four children at ages 17, 14, 11 and 2, which she all lost a year ago. She is working on getting herself better so she can get custody of her children back, but she knows it takes time. Fortunately all of her children are in good care with grandparents or with other family, so she doesn’t have to worry about their well-being while she gets her life in order again. She has a good relationship to the older children, but she knows that she has not seen the youngest since he was 10 months old. Sharon is just happy that her children are well taken care of in this moment and despite her own struggle with addiction, she has amazing children.
Sharon has a degree in psychology and would love to pick up on this again and become a drug and alcohol counselor someday. She knows that nothing is impossible in recovery and she keeps following her goals and dreams.
Today she has totally changed her lifestyle. She became very active and is running every morning for four miles to stay fit. She met a new partner in her life, who has almost a decade of sobriety and is a great support for her. “He’s been through what I’m going through,” Sharona says. “He is an amazing help for my early recovery.” Sharona’s mother is still in active use. Addiction runs in her family. She had to distance herself from her mother to protect her own sobriety.
“There was a point in my life where I didn’t want to live anymore. Don’t give up. Things get better. Now that I’m awake and clear headed life is beautiful.”