Recovery story: ‘Only you can change your lifestyle’

Blue Sky Voice and Opportunity plans to celebrate recovery all year with its “Looks Like Me” campaign. The goal is to share the message that addiction and recovery don’t have a look — they have a story. The campaign aims to shift the way the community sees and supports individuals and families affected by addiction, focusing on truth, connection and breaking down stereotypes. This story is written by Sara Reber.

I am a blessed recovering addict. My sober date is Dec. 14, 2018. I am a single mom of two amazing boys, work three jobs and am so happy with where my life is today and how I got here.

I come from a place of where partying was an everyday thing, so I started using at the age of 8. I would find whatever my parents and their friends weren’t using and do it myself, which was usually marijuana or cocaine. And then after that, for years and years and years, I have experimented with just about every single drug you can think of.

When I had my first child, I was young and didn’t party when I had him with me, but when he was at my mom's, then I would party a lot. His father has never been around. He abandoned us for the party life when my son was a baby, but also, he was not who I thought he was, and when I found out the awful truth about him, I lost my mind and started to spiral.

Years go by, and about mid-2016, I started experimenting with really hard drugs to get myself off of the ones I was already on. I was in a toxic relationship that was built on drugs, and I thought trying meth was the way to go, and it took me into the darkest times of my life — to where I lost my kid, my home, my job, my car and all the trust in so many people because I was on drugs. I was ran over by a truck, shot at, sold off, left in the cold, all the things, and still managed to make it out alive.

I finally was in jail for like the sixth time and had decided I wasn't fine with this life and wanted to get my kid back and my life back because that life is not for me. So I worked my butt off and put myself into sober living and did everything and more that CPS, the judge, my probation officer and anyone asked me to do.

Fast forward to today. I got full custody of my kid back, had another child, put myself back into school and became a licensed cosmetologist, but I also work other jobs because I am a single mom doing it alone, but that’s OK.

Getting sober saved not only my life, but also my family's life. When I got sober, everyone else in my family got sober soon after, and I couldn’t be more proud and happy with how things are in my life.

If you want to change your life and get sober, then do it. The only person who can make that change in your life is you. I try to help any person in any way with whatever they may be going through. It makes me feel so good to be able to help the next person.