When she was a teenager, Sally, now in her late 40s, drank beer and smoked pot with friends. At 18, she began frequenting bars and getting into “the hard stuff.” “Vodka was definitely my drink of choice,” says Sally.
She graduated high school and began working, but the drinking continued. Sally tried to stop, even entering an inpatient facility on her own, but that didn’t work. An outpatient stint after a DWI conviction also failed, as Sally continued to drink during and after the treatment.
“I tried to stop drinking, especially when my godchild was born,” says Sally. “But I couldn’t do it. I didn’t want to do it.”
As her drinking escalated, so did her problems. She lost her job. She attempted suicide. Friends brought her to the hospital, where she finally realized she had hit rock bottom. But then she was referred to Horizon and, as Sally says, “life got a whole lot better very quickly.”
Sally credits Alcoholics Anonymous and Horizon with helping her to get back on the right track, but she also realizes that, by the time she got to Horizon, she was truly ready to conquer her addiction, and that made all the difference.
“My addictions counselor, Marcia Valente, has been just wonderful,” says Sally. “Both she and my mental health counselor helped me to see I was not a bad person. They made me believe in myself and, most importantly, they gave me hope.”
“Sally has done a remarkable job in terms of becoming sober, remaining sober and making the determination that she wanted to go back to school to become a counselor and working toward that,” says Marcia. “She’s really done well.”
Sally graduated from Horizon’s addiction program last year, and got her old job back with the stipulation that she remain in counseling for 18 months, so she continued in Horizon’s co-dependency program. She has been sober since 2004.
Today, Sally is also attending school to become a full-fledged counselor, where she hopes to apply her knowledge and experience to help those who think recovery is not possible.
“The best gift you can give yourself is recovery,” says Sally. “Because there is hope, there is a way out – for anybody who wants it.”
Path To Recovery
The Path To Recovery includes true stories of consumers who overcame many obstacles with the help of Horizon Health Services to turn their lives around. Last names have been omitted for privacy.