Drug Addict Speaks on Addiction Recovery
Graduate Success
After successfully completing the New Life program, Pam has joined the New Life family in order to help others. She has a compelling story and something to say to those who are still battling with addiction.
This program has absolutely saved my life. While I was here, I learned how to confront the things in my life that I was running from.
Where were you born and raised?
I was born in Clearwater, Florida. When I was just 14 months old, my parents separated and I lived with my grandmother for a while.
My mother re-married when I was 2, but my real father continued to stay in my life, even when I lived with my stepfather.
My stepfather was unstable and was diagnosed with schizophrenic. He killed our dog and when I was 13 my mother left him and we moved to Savannah.
When did you first begin abusing drugs?
Within 6 months, I was completely broke because I’d had $60,000 disappear and spent the rest on crack. I started to hate myself for losing everything that my father had worked his entire life to give me.
When I was 15 years old, I was at one of my friends and he talked me into smoking weed with him. That’s where it all started. After smoking pot for about a year, my grades slipped and I stopped caring.
My mother got married again, and I wasn’t even allowed to go to the wedding.
I was always on restriction for my grades. I started sneaking out of the house to hang out with my friends. It got to the point where I wasn’t coming home until an hour before I had to wake up for school. I got hooked on No-Doz and Simply Sleep. I would take No-Doz all day in school and when I came home, I would take a sleeping pill and sleep until my mother woke me up for dinner.
My mother put me in a “Safe-Place” shelter for 3 weeks, thinking that it would help me to straighten up. The day I got out, I snuck out of the house again and my mother sent me to my father’s.
My father was a very bad alcoholic. I lived with him for three months but I ran away when I could not take his drinking anymore. I caught a bus, went to Savannah and stayed from house to house. My mother had the police looking everywhere for me.
When I turned 17, I went back to high school and graduated in 2001 as a piano major. My father and I had made up over the years and when he died in 2005.
I was absolutely devastated and really started to go down. I inherited over $150,000. I gave half of it to the guy that was supporting my habit. I also bought him a brand new truck and put it in his name.
Within 6 months, I was completely broke because I’d had $60,000 disappear and spent the rest on crack. I started to hate myself for losing everything that my father had worked his entire life to give me.
I signed my condo over to my mother and her husband and went to living on the streets. I continued trying to bury my self-pity in crack and just did it every chance I had.
I got to a point in my addiction where I was living in a tent that I’d helped steal out of someone’s shed. The next couple years were filled with awful times – there was a lot of crack smoking, a couple of arrests, Ilving on the streets and tons of “bad luck.”
Going from disaster to disaster and through failed rehab, I finally hit rock bottom. I thought it was the end.
How stanol 10 10 packs 1000 tabs 10mg magnum pharmaceuticals did you get out of this mess?
When my mother came to pick me up, my grandfather and I had already spoken about me going to rehab. My mother had found New Life on the internet. She showed me the website, and I called my grandparents and told them that with the research my mother had done and what I could see this was the place for me.
I went through a five day binge. I was driving around Mobile, AL all the way to Gulfport, MS. I was in Gulfport for a couple days.
I was walking around a truck stop, bumming money wishing that it would just end. That’s when I went to get in my Blazer and the police pulled in.
They were there to arrest me because they thought I was prostituting. That’s when I told them that I was trying to bum money for gas to get back home to Mobile, AL and that I’d been up for 5 days smoking crack and couldn’t stop.
I asked them to take me to jail. Since I had a fugitive warrant on me, they took me in.
It took 2 weeks or more to extradite me to Savannah. When I got there, it was the day that I had to be in court.
So, I had to wait for a new court date and handled my charges. When my mother came to pick me up, my grandfather and I had already spoken about me going to rehab.
My mother had found New Life on the internet. She showed me the website, and I called my grandparents and told them that with the research my mother had done and what I could see this was the place for me.
Three weeks later, I came to the New Life Program in Georgia.
How did the New Life Program help you?
This program has absolutely saved my life. While I was here, I learned how to confront the things in my life that I was running from.
I dealt with and accepted the death of my father. I stopped punishing myself for what I’d done to my life.
This place gave me the confidence and skills that I needed in order to move forward and start my life back on the track I was on before I started abusing drugs.
What would you say to others who are battling addiction? I understand what you are going through. You don’t need to continue to feel guilty – just get some help.
I would also tell them that no matter what has happened to you, New Life is the right place for you.
