Stephanie started doing drugs and alcohol at the age of 17 just to be the life of the party.  She was an emotional person. She knew drugs and alcohol would help her get away from feelings she didn’t want to deal with anymore. She entered multiple treatments in her life but a night with heroin turned her right back into the person she was in the beginning. She was stealing, lying and manipulating. She was doing anything to get drugs.

Stephanie started using opiates in 2009, beginning with 2.5 milligrams of Percocet. Just this past year, when she was using again, she was up to two to three grams of heroin a day. She’s overdosed nine times and the last one, a result of cocaine use, served as Stephanie’s wakeup call to get help. She still remembers the image of her mother crying over her while she was on a stretcher. She knew she had to get help. She went to treatment within a day of making the call.

Stephanie achieved sobriety by getting a sponsor, working the 12-Steps and going to meetings all the time. She takes great relief in knowing that she doesn’t have to wake up and think about how she is going to get money for drugs. It’s a freeing feeling for her to just wake up and live her day.

Stephanie recalls a time when a behavioral health technician told her in treatment “you don’t have to live like that anymore.”  She agrees knowing that there really is a better way to live. Just the other day she was looking out at the mountains and saw their beauty. She appreciates things like that now.