Ever since I was a child I remember struggling with depression, riddled with anxiety, and thinking I would never get out from the dark cloud I had hanging over my head. When I was in middle school and highschool I struggled with getting out of bed in the morning, keeping up in school with ADHD, and the lack of interest, focus and desire. My junior year I stopped showering. I stopped caring. I ended up going into an inpatient facility and staying there for a month. I was too depressed to live and all I wanted was for my mother to care. She didn’t. Fast forward to turning 21. I went an bought my first 6 pack of beer that August. I was so excited and proud to show them my ID that they never asked for. That’s when it all began… my love for alcohol. My father was a raging, abusive, sloppy drunk when I was growing up and he could never keep a job because of it. I think I inherited his addictive behaviors. I became so invested in alcohol and revolved my whole life around it. If I was invited somewhere, and there wasn’t alcohol around, I either had to get drunk before I went or didn’t go at all. I drove drunk more times than I can count. I don’t remember leaving point A and getting to point B. I was slowly ruining everything in my life and my marriage because I was in another relationship with alcohol. After a night out with coworkers that was just supposed to be a dinner, then we’d all go home, I decided to go out with one of the women I worked with. We stayed out all night long going from bar to bar, our eyes closing more and more with every drink we took. I was right around the corner from my house, although I had no idea where I was at the time. When we decided to go home because the bar was closing, I got into my car and it felt like I drove for miles and miles, until I hit something and smashed up the passenger side of my car. I remember feeling this instant moment of fear and anxiety that sobered me up enough to get home the rest of the way. I woke up the next morning to my husband asking me what happened to my car and I lied about it. This very day I decided I needed to get some help. I went to an outpatient clinic and went on Vivitrol. This medication saved my life and I haven’t had a craving and haven’t broke my sobriety from alcohol in 5 years. This is really what’s influenced me to go back to school. I am currently enrolled in Addiction Counseling and working in the Substance Abuse Disorder field and I have truly found my calling and passion. I spent most of my life working in the Optical field being a general manager and working under stress about meeting sales goals and putting on a fake persona to please the big corporate people. Now I have the opportunity to change lives and share my story with clients and persons served. I hope to obtain my LADC and become a counselor for other people who don’t see that it’s possible to get clean and change your life around, be able to relate to the struggles of co-occurring disorders and create a path of success for them through my work.

Ever since I was a child I remember struggling with depression, riddled with anxiety, and thinking I would never get out from the dark cloud I had hanging over my head. When I was in middle school and highschool I struggled with getting out of bed in the morning, keeping up in school with ADHD, and the lack of interest, focus and desire. My junior year I stopped showering. I stopped caring. I ended up going into an inpatient facility and staying there for a month. I was too depressed to live and all I wanted was for my mother to care. She didn’t. Fast forward to turning 21. I went an bought my first 6 pack of beer that August. I was so excited and proud to show them my ID that they never asked for. That’s when it all began… my love for alcohol. My father was a raging, abusive, sloppy drunk when I was growing up and he could never keep a job because of it. I think I inherited his addictive behaviors. I became so invested in alcohol and revolved my whole life around it. If I was invited somewhere, and there wasn’t alcohol around, I either had to get drunk before I went or didn’t go at all. I drove drunk more times than I can count. I don’t remember leaving point A and getting to point B. I was slowly ruining everything in my life and my marriage because I was in another relationship with alcohol. After a night out with coworkers that was just supposed to be a dinner, then we’d all go home, I decided to go out with one of the women I worked with. We stayed out all night long going from bar to bar, our eyes closing more and more with every drink we took. I was right around the corner from my house, although I had no idea where I was at the time. When we decided to go home because the bar was closing, I got into my car and it felt like I drove for miles and miles, until I hit something and smashed up the passenger side of my car. I remember feeling this instant moment of fear and anxiety that sobered me up enough to get home the rest of the way. I woke up the next morning to my husband asking me what happened to my car and I lied about it. This very day I decided I needed to get some help. I went to an outpatient clinic and went on Vivitrol. This medication saved my life and I haven’t had a craving and haven’t broke my sobriety from alcohol in 5 years. This is really what’s influenced me to go back to school. I am currently enrolled in Addiction Counseling and working in the Substance Abuse Disorder field and I have truly found my calling and passion. I spent most of my life working in the Optical field being a general manager and working under stress about meeting sales goals and putting on a fake persona to please the big corporate people. Now I have the opportunity to change lives and share my story with clients and persons served. I hope to obtain my LADC and become a counselor for other people who don’t see that it’s possible to get clean and change your life around, be able to relate to the struggles of co-occurring disorders and create a path of success for them through my work.

Ever since I was a child I remember struggling with depression, riddled with anxiety, and thinking I would never get out from the dark cloud I had hanging over my head. When I was in middle school and highschool I struggled with getting out of bed in the morning, keeping up in school with ADHD, and the lack of interest, focus and desire. My junior year I stopped showering. I stopped caring. I ended up going into an inpatient facility and staying there for a month. I was too depressed to live and all I wanted was for my mother to care. She didn’t. Fast forward to turning 21. I went an bought my first 6 pack of beer that August. I was so excited and proud to show them my ID that they never asked for. That’s when it all began… my love for alcohol. My father was a raging, abusive, sloppy drunk when I was growing up and he could never keep a job because of it. I think I inherited his addictive behaviors. I became so invested in alcohol and revolved my whole life around it. If I was invited somewhere, and there wasn’t alcohol around, I either had to get drunk before I went or didn’t go at all. I drove drunk more times than I can count. I don’t remember leaving point A and getting to point B. I was slowly ruining everything in my life and my marriage because I was in another relationship with alcohol. After a night out with coworkers that was just supposed to be a dinner, then we’d all go home, I decided to go out with one of the women I worked with. We stayed out all night long going from bar to bar, our eyes closing more and more with every drink we took. I was right around the corner from my house, although I had no idea where I was at the time. When we decided to go home because the bar was closing, I got into my car and it felt like I drove for miles and miles, until I hit something and smashed up the passenger side of my car. I remember feeling this instant moment of fear and anxiety that sobered me up enough to get home the rest of the way. I woke up the next morning to my husband asking me what happened to my car and I lied about it. This very day I decided I needed to get some help. I went to an outpatient clinic and went on Vivitrol. This medication saved my life and I haven’t had a craving and haven’t broke my sobriety from alcohol in 5 years. This is really what’s influenced me to go back to school. I am currently enrolled in Addiction Counseling and working in the Substance Abuse Disorder field and I have truly found my calling and passion. I spent most of my life working in the Optical field being a general manager and working under stress about meeting sales goals and putting on a fake persona to please the big corporate people. Now I have the opportunity to change lives and share my story with clients and persons served. I hope to obtain my LADC and become a counselor for other people who don’t see that it’s possible to get clean and change your life around, be able to relate to the struggles of co-occurring disorders and create a path of success for them through my work.

Ever since I was a child I remember struggling with depression, riddled with anxiety, and thinking I would never get out from the dark cloud I had hanging over my head. When I was in middle school and high school I struggled with getting out of bed in the morning, keeping up in school with ADHD, and the lack of interest, focus and desire. My junior year I stopped showering. I stopped caring. I ended up going into an inpatient facility and staying there for a month. I was too depressed to live and all I wanted was for my mother to care. She didn’t. Fast forward to turning 21. I went an bought my first 6 pack of beer that August. I was so excited and proud to show them my ID that they never asked for. That’s when it all began… my love for alcohol. My father was a raging, abusive, sloppy drunk when I was growing up and he could never keep a job because of it. I think I inherited his addictive behaviors. I became so invested in alcohol and revolved my whole life around it. If I was invited somewhere, and there wasn’t alcohol around, I either had to get drunk before I went or didn’t go at all. I drove drunk more times than I can count. I don’t remember leaving point A and getting to point B. I was slowly ruining everything in my life and my marriage because I was in another relationship with alcohol. After a night out with coworkers that was just supposed to be a dinner, then we’d all go home, I decided to go out with one of the women I worked with. We stayed out all night long going from bar to bar, our eyes closing more and more with every drink we took. I was right around the corner from my house, although I had no idea where I was at the time. When we decided to go home because the bar was closing, I got into my car and it felt like I drove for miles and miles, until I hit something and smashed up the passenger side of my car. I remember feeling this instant moment of fear and anxiety that sobered me up enough to get home the rest of the way. I woke up the next morning to my husband asking me what happened to my car and I lied about it. This very day I decided I needed to get some help. I went to an outpatient clinic and went on Vivitrol. This medication saved my life and I haven’t had a craving and haven’t broke my sobriety from alcohol in 5 years. This is really what’s influenced me to go back to school. I am currently enrolled in Addiction Counseling and working in the Substance Abuse Disorder field and I have truly found my calling and passion. I spent most of my life working in the Optical field being a general manager and working under stress about meeting sales goals and putting on a fake persona to please the big corporate people. Now I have the opportunity to change lives and share my story with clients and persons served. I hope to obtain my LADC and become a counselor for other people who don’t see that it’s possible to get clean and change your life around, be able to relate to the struggles of co-occurring disorders and create a path of success for them through my work.