- Alcohol
Haylee works currently under an exchange program at a hospital in Nashville as a nurse. As she was shopping, she saw a flyer about the Heroes in Recovery 6K race and decided it would be a good cause to run. She loves running and always tries to live active and healthy.
As her uncle passed away during his Navy years, her grandparents struggled with an alcohol addiction trying to cope with this tragic loss. There was a family intervention and both grandparents made it back on track. She knows this only from stories, as she was still a baby when the family intervention happened.
Today, looking at people close to her–not from her own perspective, but from a healthcare perspective– she has found that she sees many individuals struggling with addiction or alcoholism that are often in denial about their substance abuse. Haylee knows from experience that addiction begins that way and people deny their disease until something major happens. Change is usually the result of family intervention or an accident. She just hopes that they see it soon and she hopes that she can be supportive if they need her help to change their lives.
Haylee believes that it’s important to be always self-aware and be able to talk to others. She recognizes that the first step into recovery is drastic change for most people and that they need help to get all the way through. She believes that many people also need a helping hand to begin recovery. “Do not rely only on yourself,” she says, “seek help.”