Unhealthy Family and Opioid Overdose
As a child, Sabrina’s parents’ divorce was tough but turning to drugs and experiencing opioid overdose wasn’t in her plans. While growing up, she felt more at ease with her mother, however, her father was emotionally distant.
Sabrina’s father was strict and controlling. Her mother who was emotionally available had her own issues of depression. Sabrina recalls almost no communication between them after the divorce. Throughout childhood, as she went to and from both her parents’ homes.
The instability affected her development more than anyone around her realized, and she wanted to escape. Sabrina had all of these inner issues and did not know how to deal with them in a healthy way.
Secretive behaviors were one of the first ways she would try to escape reality as a child. She’d go into her mother or sister’s room to steal change so she could walk to the store and get chocolate frosting.
Sabrina would go home and hide in her closet and eat the entire large container of frosting. This was the beginning of Sabrina’s tendencies towards addictive behavior. Sugar was the first thing that she used to numb herself until she began drug abuse to escape reality.
Effects of Crystal Meth
During Sabrina’s teenage years, her family’s instability and issues continued to affect her development; her parents still didn’t realize how much their daughter was suffering. Without the emotional skills and tools to deal with things, she turned to unhealthy ways of coping.
Sabrina moved on to self-harm next as a way to escape the pain and emotional turmoil that she felt inside. Her parents eventually caught on to her self-harming but didn’t intervene in any significant way.
Looking back, Sabrina suspects that her parents were overwhelmed and just didn’t know how to deal with the problem. Eventually, during her teen years, she moved on to drugs to numb the pain.
At age 16, she went to a party and was offered Methamphetamine for the first time. Sabrina recalls a lot of the negative feelings that she had gone away when she experienced the crystal meth high; she felt beautiful and alive when she was high.
Unfortunately, the people who offered it to her at the party didn’t mention the comedown. Sabrina went home and when she began to come down, she went into a deep depression where she felt that it would be better to end her own life. Sabrina attempted to kill herself by swallowing a bottle of pills.
The next thing she knew, she was in the emergency room with her family surrounding her in tears, terrified of losing her. But Sabrina could only think about how she was devastated to still be alive.
Teenage Drug Abuse Treatment
As a result of this incident, Sabrina went to a mental hospital for adolescents called St. Luke’s. Soon after Sabrina got out of St. Luke’s, she ended up going to another party. At this party, she encountered Ecstasy for the first time and she loved the almost spiritual experience that it gave her.
One night, she was offered opioid painkillers to help her come down from Ecstasy and Acid that she had taken earlier. She quickly became addicted to opioids and found herself physically dependent, experiencing withdrawals any time she didn’t use them.
Sabrina’s life was quickly affected by her opioid addiction. She dropped out of college, burned bridges with her family and friends and eventually lost everything. This began her cycle of going in and out of detox centers.
Each time Sabrina would go in hoping and praying to get clean from drugs, she would only find that addiction’s grip on her was too strong. Sabrina was lost so deep in her addiction and recalls the things she did for drugs quickly became more and more demoralizing.
12-step Program and Treatment
Sabrina went through the revolving door of detox and treatment centers for quite some time. One day while Sabrina was in deep despair, she reached out a friend that she knew and told her that she couldn’t handle her life on drugs anymore.
This friend, in turn, got in contact with a treatment center and was able to offer Sabrina a full 30-day scholarship to get treatment.
Sabrina was overcome with gratitude that she was being offered help and finally decided to take full advantage—she began to work her steps and found a sponsor. Her speck of willingness went a long way in completing her steps.
Sabrina is realistic: now that she is sober, life isn’t going to be perfect, but at least she has the tools to overcome anything that comes her way. She’s been clean and sober since March 30, 2017, and her entire life has improved.
Sabrina now works at the treatment center where she got her 30-day scholarship; she has a community of women that care about her and she has the support she needs to deal with life on life’s terms.
She has the heart to help others and she continues to look for ways to do that. Sabrina knows that there is a way out of drug addiction and she is willing to help those who are struggling to find it as she did. She will be forever grateful to those who extended their hand to help her when she was at her darkest point.
If you are anything like Sabrina or have a loved one who is, get help. Start fighting back against addiction now – contact us for resources and assistance at (866) 578-7471. You too can find a way out.
