From an early age of 13 I started using drugs that my dad introduced me to. At the age of 16 I was using meth with my friends and one day I was driving around with two of my friends and I ran a stop sign and hit another car. We were all three thrown out of the vehicle and my best friend was killed instantly. I was in the hospital for about 2 and half months with injuries and then was released with pain medicine.
From then on things seemed to get worse. I was diagnosed with PTSD, bipolar disorder, anxiety, and manic depressant. I tried committing suicide. Then the judge charged me with negligent homicide and sentenced me to a mental facility for 6 months. I was in and out of the mental facility throughout the rest of my teenage years. I tried going back to being a normal teenager and graduating school but I wasn’t able to finish. I was the teenager that everyone looked at and called a murderer and it just made me that more depressed.
By the age of 18 I met a man and we started using IV drugs. He physical and mentally abused me for 2 years and then I finally decided to get out. At the age of 20 I met my first-born son’s father. When my son was only 3 weeks old his father committed suicide. I again begin to spin down a dark path. I had two more children but continued to use drugs on and off throughout the years and was in and out of rehabs and mental facilities most of my life.
In 2010 I was hit head on by another car and was life-flighted to the hospital. Both my arms were shattered, and my right leg was also shattered. I was in the hospital for over a month and was released with Roxy’s, methadone, soma’s, Xanax, and Zanaflex. Within a few years I was selling my prescriptions on the streets. I finally got busted in 2014 and was charged with purpose to sell Roxy’s and methadone. I was sentenced to 120 days in the regional punishment facility and 8 years’ probation.
In 2018 someone tried to steal my prescriptions from me, and I stabbed them. I was then sentenced to 4 years but only had to do 18 months and got out in 2019. I relapsed on and off again until 2020. I then started going to Cedarville First Assembly with my niece Morgan. Met some wonderful mentors and friends that helped me get into the Ready Now Recovery support groups, that Cedarville First had started in May 2021. I was not only saved but I also made the decision to make it public and was baptized in June 2021.
As of now I am still going to Ready Now Recovery weekly and attending Cedarville First Assembly. I still have a long way to go but I could not have stayed clean if it wasn’t for these groups, my facilitators, and mentors. I have built lasting relationships through these groups and found that I am not alone in this walk of life. These groups have helped me grow and learn all the while teaching me who I am in Christ and just how valuable I am.
There are relationships that are now being restored with my brother and his wife and I know God will continue to restore my other relationships that I have damaged in the past with my family. Philippians 3:13-14 says, I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.