About me

My experience with addiction started at birth. My father and my older brother both lived in active addiction since the day I came into this world. My childhood and formative years were those of trauma, abuse, and fear. In the end, I lost them both to this terrible disease when I was in my 20's. In my adult years, I have worked hard to overcome the damage done by growing up as a child of addiction, finally reclaiming not only my childhood memories, but also my power and peace. Addiction is truly a family disease, and through working on myself, I am raising my child in a knowledgeable and healing environment, working to break the bonds of generational trauma. Though I cannot claim full credit for my healing, as it was a team effort with my recovery family, I love the saying, "It ran in my family until it ran into me."

My own battle with substance use began when I was 11 years old. For 15 years, I battled the despair of substance addiction that led me to suicide twice. Entering into recovery at the age of 19, my journey was up and down, and in 2001 I walked into my last rehab facility. However, as many stories go, I did experience a relapse in 2010. I had to learn first hand that without daily attention, my recovery was fragile. I entered back into recovery in 2012, and have been successful in that arena since. In almost 3 decades of my own personal journey, I have learned many lessons through programs, therapeutic work, medical assistance, lived experience, and most importantly, growing my relationship with myself. In the years following, my commitment to myself has continuously started with my recovery.

My journey as a wife of a man with SUD has been a hard and harrowing one. Meeting an amazing man in recovery, only to lose him to a relapse was probably one of the hardest things I have ever gone through. For years, I tried to do it "on my own," thinking that my love, attention, and (let's be honest) control would help him find recovery and heal our family. However, that did not work. I finally entered into what I call a successful family recovery process in 2021. Over the last three years, my life has substantially improved, and I am so honored to say today he is in recovery, and our family is once again whole. But I also know that the journey does not end here, and it is a daily effort for both of us.