Success Stories
Cayla
My life was unmanageable due to drugs long before I ever put drugs into my body. Growing up, I witnessed my mother and father use drugs regularly. I saw the impact it had on them as individuals and as a couple. My younger brother and I often went to different family member’s houses during periods of time when my parents were trying to quit. This made growing up difficult, and I felt as if I was never given the amount of attention I wanted as a child.
Later on in life, I experimented with different substances. This seemed to fill the void I felt inside. I overdosed multiple times before even turning 18, and learned that doing so granted me a great amount of attention. I desperately wanted to be accepted by other kids at school and in the neighborhood, and doing drugs gave me the illusion that I finally fit in.
As an adult, I began to notice a physical and mental addiction. It started with not being able to leave my house unless on some sort of substance. I could not go to work or communicate with other people in the world without feeling like I was having a panic attack. Eventually, I would have seizures and hallucinations when I ran out of drugs. There wasn’t a drug I was opposed to doing.
For me, the progressive nature of the disease of addiction is real. I broke every rule I had set with myself. I eventually found myself sick, living in the woods, and spiritually broken. I finally reached out for help. I finally had hit my bottom.
I moved into the a SARA house the day after Easter in 2017. I was absolutely terrified. I was unable to make eye contact with anyone for more than a few moments without feeling like I was going to throw up. I found paraphernalia in my backpack, and gave it to one of the owners. I had fully given up at this point and was willing to do anything to change. I came to the realization that not changing for me meant death.
I was told that I needed to attend 12-step meetings, do my assigned chores daily, obey a curfew, and find a job. They explained to me that if I did these things, I could learn how to live a normal life without drugs. They made me feel welcome, loved, and valued. I could genuinely tell that they cared about me. They believed in me and told me I was worth it. In combination with learning normal adult responsibilities, I found an amazing 12-step fellowship through their guidance and suggestions.
In the beginning, one of the things that I struggled with the most were the weekly house meetings. I was absolutely terrified to have to speak in front of other people, especially about myself. They would go around to each individual woman and ask how things were going in our lives. In doing this, I learned the importance of being uncomfortable in recovery. I spoke with them about things that if kept inside could have been damaging to myself in the long run. I finally started to feel comfortable. I felt for the first time that I had a home.
I eventually moved out after fulfilling my 6 month contract. At 25 years old, I couldn’t remember a single instance in which I completely followed through with a commitment. That was such a beautiful feeling. I am still very close with not only other women I met in the house, but with the two owners. Danielle taught me hope. Tim taught me love. I was shown a new way to live, and I am eternally grateful to the Bridge to Life for saving my life.
Corine
I’ve spent most of my life learning how to be a “good addict” by my parents, who were “successful addicts”! Most people will think that going through life as the youngest child of six, I would have been given the world at my fingertips, and as that may very well be true, I was also served the ability to adapt, which I confused with becoming a chameleon. Doing my best, I took as not being good enough. Being spoiled, I inherited manipulation and entitlement. All these habits accompanied by being the only biological child of both parents in my home fueled my insecurities of being different and left me feeling ostracized. Today I have a better understanding of why drugs became my new family for so many years or why I so easily traded what I knew for how I felt.
Living in active addiction wasn’t always torture. At first, I felt like I belonged, that I had found the cure to my emptiness… but when that emptiness would surface again, I would go to any lengths not to feel it again. For me, any lengths consisted of jail, treatments, and prison over and over again. I realized that I was comfortable in controlled environments and the habits that I acquired as a child of becoming a chameleon and manipulating served its purpose once again in my life. This is where things became very confusing for me. How can something so detrimental to me become exceedingly crucial in order to survive?
I found myself getting arrested just hours after my mother passed from a drug overdose and the events that transpired after that have been breathtaking. I moved into SARA empty and lost but with the chance to start over clean. And that’s exactly what I did. I followed the house rules, followed every stipulation the courts had put on me, and most importantly, I gained independence, self-esteem, balance, and love. I was able to stay clean through the passing of my brother, attain my driver’s license, graduate drug court, and keep a healthy relationship with my partner whom I now have a beautiful home to share with. As for confusing those once bad habits with my everyday life skills? I now know the meaning of circumstantial and that sometimes life shows up and it’s okay to just do the best I can with the cards I’m dealt. Today I have 15 months clean and I wouldn’t trade the life I get to live for anything.
Growing up, I never had stability or happiness. Not at home, school, or anything really. My parents were here nor there and I didn’t have stable role models in my life. Throughout my life, I grew up into someone I didn’t recognize or know. And then entered substances in my life. A lot of my usage covered me in a mask. I adapted to my surroundings and became whomever anyone wanted me to be. Later down the line I became homeless in a state where I knew nobody and turned back to drugs. I don’t remember exactly how it all came about, but I made the conscious decision of bettering myself. I knew there was a better way to life but didn’t know HOW to obtain it. I went to rehab and was introduced to S.A.R.A. I was hesitant to take suggestions, much less follow rules. After I relapsed, I knew something had to change. When I came back, I latched on to the suggestions. And a lot of them were in place was because the program had seen something in me I couldn’t see then. After a while, I started contributing to the program that had given me grace, and my life back. S.A.R.A. Has shown me what a better life is. Being taught by example and how to grow has given me the opportunity to teach by example. I see myself going back to school, to keep growing. S.A.R.A. has shown me what real stability.
– Anonymous
When I took my drug of choice for the first time at age 15, I knew that I wanted to spend every moment under the influence of it.
Over the next 9 years I was able to do that with a lot of success, setting my life up in such a way that every aspect of my existence accommodated my drug use. When I was arrested on October 3, 2018, I was cued in to the unmanageability of my life. Following my arrest, I continued to get high until I moved to Sarasota in December of 2018 with my boyfriend. I made the decision to get clean and began working program of recovery.
I met the owners in the rooms of a 12 step fellowship. Though going to meetings and working a program began to create some stability in my life, living with a partner who was still actively using resulted in a lot of chaos. After taking my partner to detox for the second time within a couple of months, I made the decision to continue my recovery journey with SARA where I was welcomed with open arms.
The time I spent living in SARA recovery house had framed some of the most influential experiences of my life. Having a supportive, stable environment to recover was an essential part of my journey. Through SARA I was able to learn what it meant to be a sister and a friend. I was given the opportunity to be a leader and a role model, helping other clients along their recovery journey.
Presently, I live in a two bedroom apartment by myself, something I was unable to fathom before my time with SARA. I always believed I needed drugs or a man to make my life happen. I’m grateful for the love and support I received while in the SARA program. They always met me where I was at, whether that be psychosis of depression. The approach was gentle yet firm, helping me along the way when I felt stuck or lost.
Thank You SARA for showing me how to live.
– Bianca Palmar