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Group 401

Terry’s Story

It started with a simple task: moving furniture at her house. Terry, a suburban thirty-something mother of two and warehouse worker, hurt her back badly enough that her doctor prescribed pain pills and patches. The trouble was that, by the time the pain was gone, Terry was addicted. “Even when the pain stopped, I kept using the pills and the patches,” she said. “But then, one day, I just decided I was done, and I stopped.”

Terry was clean for several months before she started using again and was arrested on an unrelated charge. She was offered treatment as an alternative to jail and, realizing how badly she wanted to recover and that she’d need help, Terry asked for a more long-term treatment program. She was sent to Horizon Village.

“Terry welcomed the opportunity to come into the Horizon Village program,” says Pat Pasculle, an addictions counselor at the Village. “The arrest was her wake-up call, and she was completely motivated to do whatever it took to change her life around. She arrived in early April and has really been applying herself since.”

“I thank God every day that I was allowed to come to Horizon Village,” says Terry. “The staff members are wonderful; they put 110 percent into each of us. I am getting so much out of the groups I attend, and working hard every day toward my goals.”

The treatment program involves the consumers telling their story, facing their situation and recognizing how drugs have influenced their lives so they can begin to mend relationships, learn to like themselves again and build toward recovery. Families often participate, as is the case with Terry’s situation.

“I understand Horizon is here to give me the tools I need, but that I need to do the work,” says Terry. “I am taking each day one at a time because I want to get clean and stay clean. I want to be a better mother and I want to get back to work. I want my life back.”

Terry says the acupuncture treatments she receives at the Village have been a big help in her recovery. They help relieve her cravings and lower her stress level, and that helps her focus on her task at hand. She says she’s learning to forgive herself, to accept that she cannot change the past, to deal with the hurt this situation has brought her family and, most of all, to realize that she can live without drugs.

“Every day I wake up with no drugs in my system whatsoever is a great day for me,” says Terry. “Horizon has helped me and my family overcome this situation, and work on the things I need to – and will – change. I just know someday soon I will be coming back to Horizon Village to talk to other consumers and let them know they can change their lives for the better and that they are in a great place in which to learn how to do just that.”

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.