- Drugs
- Faith
Crystal’s story is like so many others in recovery. She ended up here simply because she was tired of living the way she’d been living. One night, after loaning a friend some money, she realized she had no gas to get to work. She had to call her brother at 1 am to ask for help. It was then that something just clicked.
“I was tired of being a loser,” she says now.
It wasn’t that Crystal was a loser, but she had a substance abuse problem that was holding her hostage. Not that she didn’t know before that night that there was an issue. She’d had several encounters with loved ones who tried to get her to see her need for help. She’d even quit in the past, but she always relapsed.
This time, she’s found a spiritual basis that she says had made all the difference. Crystal accepted Christ shortly after getting clean. “This time, I’m not just quitting because somebody told me to,” she says. She’s also working the steps and has a sponsor she can count on.
As a result, her relationship with her kids is much better and she’s found a whole new church community to fill the void of the social circle she had to leave behind when getting clean.
Anyone in recovery knows, though, that life doesn’t magically become perfect. Life is still a struggle for Crystal, who continues to look for a job.
Today, she says the key to her success is surrounding herself in prayer and staying in the Word.
“I just realized it’s not so much something wrong with me, it’s not something I need to fix, it’s something I need to change,” Crystal says. “I need to deal to deal with the behaviors.”
That means being able to find constructive ways to deal with the obstacles of life. When things go wrong, that first instinct is still to use and numb unwanted feelings.
“When I do have to feel it it’s very traumatizing and that’s hard,” Crystal admits.
Fortunately, she has a plan to handle those moments of temptation.
“I attend church three times a week, I have my sponsor whose also like my best friend, and I go to meetings.”
Eventually, she hopes to go back to school to study cosmetology in the short term and then eventually study to be a drug and alcohol counselor.
To those who are at the beginning of this journey or not sure they’re ready to take that important step, Crystal says, “Just pray. Stand strong and pray. You can do this. Cut ties with everyone who will pull you down. Fill your days to keep you busy. Find a spiritual base, whatever it is, grab it and hit the ground running with it. No matter what anyone else tells you, you can do this.”