Counseling & Recovery Services Mental Health Court taught Carley, 24, how to feel again and build a life without heroin addiction.
“I got clean before and relapsed,” Carley said. “I destroyed everything I had. I didn’t feel I had anything to lose. The difference now is I have a life I want. I don’t want to relapse.”
Her heroin addiction started at age 18 after she was given opioid pain medicine in the hospital. After leaving the hospital, she was sick, going through withdrawals, and her brother introduced her to heroin.
After being arrested, Carley went to inpatient rehabilitation where she dealt with a life of trauma, loss and chaos. The trauma had been the hole she filled with heroin, she said.
Carley is expected to graduate from Mental Health Court this summer.
Her life is full today with a job she loves and a great relationship with her children, ages 6 and 2. She hopes to start a Celebrate Recovery group at her church and become a recovery support specialist to help other people get better. Eventually, she wants to go to college and get her license as a drug and alcohol counselor.
“I credit this program and God for where I am today,” Carley said. “I have a long way to go, but I know I have support to get there.”
To read more about our agency and how it helps, follow this link to the Winter/Spring 2018 newsletter.