I am 49 years old and a recovering addict. I was raised in church from the time I was born. My parents are Christians and they bought us up with God first in our lives. I never knew anything about drugs and I never used until later in life.
Our parents kept me and my sisters shelter from wicked things in the real world until we got old enough to make our own decisions and choices. Even after I left home and got married, I remained in church. Then I let Satan in my life and he destroyed my marriage of 13 years. Later I remarried a man who I thought was “the one”. But I was wrong once more.
Up till I met my second husband I knew nothing about drugs. My second husband introduced me to some of his friends one night and that is when the nightmare begin. They were smoking method and snorting cocaine and I was offered to try it. I wasn’t forced to do any, I made the choice to try. It only took one time and I was hooked. We went in debt of $3,000 for meth. So we quit that. Then a friend of a friend came over our house and she introduced to me how to get a good “high”, by snorting pain pills or what they are originally called, “opioids”. From then on I was hooked. It kept me from feeling any kind of pain, physically and emotionally that I didn’t want to face.
Through all this I knew God was still watching over me wanting me to come back to Him but I felt so ashamed. I lost my good job because of the opioids and my marriage fell apart. I had gotten pregnant so during that time I did no drugs. But before that I lost two babies because of the cocaine use. My daughter was born healthy and beautiful. But the damage was already done. Three years after my daughter was born my husband and I slit up and later divorced. Still God was waiting patiently for me to return to Him.
When my family found out I was using drugs they were devastated. So they started praying for me until I finally hit bottom. I tried to commit suicide 3 times but God kept me from that because he had plans for my life just as soon as I came back to him. It took me moving to Ohio with the man who saved my life. God sent him to me to guide me in the right direction. Soon I enrolled in a program called, ” Maryhaven”. It’s a program for recovering addicts. I had never heard of it but when I went to see a nurse at a counseling center, I told her I needed help I couldn’t go on living my life on drugs. That’s when she referred me to Maryhavebn in 2014.
It consists of seeing a doctor, group therapy sessions and seeing a counselor. This program is the best thing that ever happened to me! It gave me hope but I found out there were other drug addicts like me wanting to clean up my life. I have worked really hard fighting for my life that I began seeking God again and there He was all along by my side waiting patiently.
Since 2014 I am clean and sober 2 years 9 months. November of 2018 will make 3 years sober all thanks to God first and Maryhaven second. I know know the plans God has for me to do and that’s to reach out to other drug addicts and tell them about what God did for me and also to be a recovering addict counselor. I knew I was going to die if I didn’t get off drugs. So many people are dying each day without ever knowing Christ. How sad. God has mercy on me and others around me. Thanks to Him I am a brand new person.
I weighed 118lbs when I was on drugs, and now I weigh 180lbs. Wow!! I feel better and look better. I’m able to keep a job too! I did drugs for 12 years and as far as I know there’s been no damage to my nose from snorting pills and my brain is good. It has taken this long for my brain to get back to being normal but I made it!Thank you Lord and thank you for letting me share my story.
—Regina