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Addiction -- how it began for a fourteen year old girl This is the story of how an innocent 14-year-old girl stepped on a path that would take her from casual illegal drug use, through choices to try heavier drugs, and finally to falling into extreme addiction at age 22. Over those years, she says she lost her children, lost the trust of her family, lost her place in school that would have guaranteed her a solid career, lost herself. She is now 12 years sober (applause!!) as of this coming November, and she is speaking out about her journey to recovery in order to help others. By Linda Waggener At the fourth Adair County drug forum at Living by Faith Community Church, one former drug addict shared some of her story which shook those in attendance unfamiliar with the trauma a family goes through when a member is in the throes of addiction. But her testimony provided deep, caring comfort to those in attendance who were "afraid to go home" because of an unpredictable, addicted family member turned into a dishonest, erratic, dangerous person using illegal substances. Misty May speaks at every opportunity, telling the details of her story to continue spotlighting the journey from addiction to recovery. “The goal,” she said, “is to let people know that it IS possible to recover -- it is possible for an addict to recover and it is possible for a family to come back together in that recovery.” Before addiction: Misty May of Columbia says she was just a normal school kid, the youngest of four sisters growing up in Casey County with a single mom who worked all the time to raise them. She said she played softball, but once she stopped, around age 14, she got bored and began to look for something more to fill what she calls "a dark hole within.” At age 15 she said she started hanging out with older people and chose to smoke marijuana. As time went by her activity became more random, her mother never knew when she would be at home. She was quietly becoming a different person. Within a year, still searching, she said she made the choice to graduate from marijuana and add pills, nerve pills like Xanax or Valium, still trying to fill a void she felt within. She continued to use illegal drugs in the years after high school but felt she was able to balance her life. She didn't feel like an addict. She was in a relationship, having her first baby at 19 and her second at age 21. By that time she'd progressed to using Cocaine. She was in nursing school at WKU, and justified depending on drugs to stay up late and study for exams. What happened to tip the balance in her life? She remembers the strategic life-crashing buy, looking for more Cocaine, the sellers were out but they offered her Crack Cocaine. She bought it and remembers, "It completely shattered my life." She said, "I was immediately and totally addicted to something that utterly took over my life; every second from then on was spent manipulating and maneuvering, doing anything I had to do to get more Crack Cocaine. I lost my kids, I gave up nursing school, I lost weight until I looked like a walking skeleton. From the moment I woke until time for bed I was spending every moment chasing that Crack Cocaine high." How can a drug do that to a person? What's the difference in Cocaine and Crack Cocaine? Cocaine, (street names, Coke, Snow, C, Powder, Blow) is a powerful, highly addictive stimulant, usable in the US only when prescribed by a doctor. It is one of the most addictive recreational drugs on the illegal drug market because of the intense high it produces. Crack Cocaine is Cocaine, mixed, creating a solid, referred to as "rocks", so named because of sounds made when it's heated. Crack, inhaled into the lungs/bloodstream, rockets into the brain in eight seconds as compared to the much slower ten-minute wait for Cocaine to reach the bloodstream after snorting it. After Crack Cocaine, her no-looking-back dive into absolute addiction began. “It was crack that completely stole my life,” she said, “but I had walked the path to get to it and that allowed me to be in position for the one drug that would get me. There's always one single drug that will get you, no matter how strongly a person feels that they can handle drugs. The minute you taste that one drug it's too late, and life is given over to it. “Drug addiction turned me into an awful person. In that frantic search for money for another fix, I'd steal from you and then turn right around and help you look for what had gone missing. I would steal whatever I could to pay for drugs. I would degrade myself for a fix. I would manipulate the facts in order to make you feel like my addiction was your fault and that if you didn't “help me” you’d would feel guilt and fear. This is the first part of Misty May’s story – what happened in her life that took her into years of addiction. In part II of Misty's story, at this link, she shares the events that took place to allow her to turn away from addiction and have the possibility of recovering. She is sharing her story in hopes of saving others from her experience. She is available to speak to groups and is especially hopeful she can work with school leadership and speak directly to teens who are the age now that she was when she made her first steps in the direction of becoming an addict. This story was posted on 2017-07-27 15:00:41
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