Recovery Stories

After many years of battling with addiction, I had an accident with my daughter and my cousin in the car while under the influence of alcohol and drugs. We were all three flown to Hershey Medical Center. After everyone was stable and ready to discharge from the hospital I had to focus on what to do next about my addiction. I found a detox bed at White Deer Run rehab in Allenwood, Pa where I stayed for 21 days of rehab following a 5 day stay in detox on methadone. For the first couple of weeks in rehab, I felt like I was going to die. Finally, when I did feel better I was able to start building a small foundation of what my recovery was going to be like. I was still not completely sold on the idea of remaining drug-free but had at least an idea of the life that I could have without having to put a substance into my body every day. When I got out of rehab I was directed to go to a psychiatrist to continue medications that had been prescribed at the rehab. The psychiatrist diagnosed me with high anxiety and prescribed me Klonopin. It was a short amount of time before I was taking them more often than I was supposed to result in my behavior declining drastically. My sponsor threatened to take them from me so when she arrived at my home to confiscate my bottle of pills and flush them, I took the entire contents of the prescription. I slept for hours. The next day a group of people in recovery traveled to Front Royal Virginia for the Almost Heaven Area NA convention where I stood up in front of approximately 1000 people and said, “I’m Tesha, I am a person in recovery and I have one day sober.” I have stayed in recovery since that day by working the steps, being grateful for the life that I have today, working with other people who are addicted, and enjoying the freedom that abstinence from alcohol and drugs gives me. I will not pick up no matter what with the help of my Higher Power, my sponsor, my recovery network, and my diligence in the program of recovery.