{"id":192,"date":"2014-06-18T17:53:09","date_gmt":"2014-06-18T17:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nashvillerecovers.org\/?p=95"},"modified":"2017-07-09T06:21:53","modified_gmt":"2017-07-09T06:21:53","slug":"lisa-b-has-12-years-clean-after-trying-every-drug-in-nashville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/2014\/06\/18\/lisa-b-has-12-years-clean-after-trying-every-drug-in-nashville\/","title":{"rendered":"Lisa B. has 12 years clean after trying every drug in Nashville"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lisa B. turns 12 today (June 18). OK, she\u2019s actually 55.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Lisa celebrates 12 years clean today, and I\u2019m thrilled to mark the day with her telling her story. In part, that\u2019s because she pays it forward: Lisa now works for an agency that helps teens with issues with drugs. Here\u2019s her story:<\/span><\/p>\n

Growing up, I was always an anxious kid. My parents had really high expectations.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

But I came from a good home. We went to church, I shuffled around different private schools. I had all the opportunities kids had not to use drugs. At the same time, there was something in me.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The first time I remember ever feeling euphoric kind of high is 11 years old.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"lisa<\/span><\/a>I had a bad stomach ache for days. Every night, it would double me over and one night, I woke up my mom and she gave me paregoric, a kind of opium, household old-time cough syrup. She gave me a tablespoon and all of a sudden, the lighting dimmed and I felt loved and not anxious for the first time in my life.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

It was that high I always remembered and chased all my life.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I went to UT Knoxville in the late \u201870s and everybody was smoking weed, getting high and doing every kind of drug you can imagine. It was pretty much on.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I drank more than anybody else. I drank to get drunk. Eventually I discovered pain pills were better than drinking. There was no social stigma around taking one at 10 in the morning.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I got married to a pharmaceutical salesman before I left college and I believe he was an addict too. We moved to Chattanooga and it started a dark time. Cocaine, briefcases full of drugs, the whole deal. He eventually lost his job.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I came back to Nashville and cleaned up a little, by accident, just because I was away from it. Once again, I got involved with a man, and got pregnant with my son and I was five months pregnant and I wasn\u2019t using. And I felt great, looked great, was thinking great.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

And my mom got diagnosed with terminal cancer of the liver. Everything went to shit.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I remember standing in her hospital room the day she died and she waved goodbye to me, and the baby\u2019s kicking, and she\u2019s saying goodbye. It was awful. A month later, I had my son.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

When they sent me home, they gave me five gazillion painkillers. The doctor said, I want you to feel OK. It was on after that. I would go on little drug vacations. I started working, put my kid in day care, but on the weekends, I\u2019d blow it out with whatever I could get. I got really good at telling doctors I had migraines.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I think I was 28 and I realized one day that I took something every single day. I stayed clean for maybe a month. I hadn\u2019t suffered any real consequences. That was one of six rehabs I went to. Every time got worse.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I bought a lot of drugs from one particular person in East Nashville. I always came in high heels. They were impressed. One day, I was offered Dilaudid. She told me I\u2019d have to do it a different way. I thought, I\u2019m just gonna do it this one time.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t feel anything for a second. Then all of a sudden it was like, this is what I\u2019ve been missing all my life.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By 6 o\u2019clock that night, I was back. That run ended up in the methadone clinic. I kept thinking, my son would be a lot better off if he didn\u2019t have a mother like this. I did a lot of driving and crying.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I had been exposed to 12-step stuff, and I\u2019m not religious, but I muttered a prayer, \u201cGod help me.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Two days later, I just couldn\u2019t get high and I had taken everything they had in Nashville. I got in the car and I rear ended someone on Edmondson Pike. And I remember these two officers with their arms crossed looking at me.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat if you were driving and hit my family and killed somebody?\u201d one officer asked. He let me call somebody.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

That night, I went to Cumberland Heights again. I knew I wasn\u2019t gonna live much longer if I kept using drugs. It was like, do I wanna live or do I wanna die?<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Finally I decided I was gonna take a leap and just try getting clean one more time. It was second to second. I felt so horrible, I was so sick.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

My dad had come to pick me up to get booked into jail. I can\u2019t even remember why. The next thing I knew, I was in Arizona at another treatment center. Cumberland Heights recommended it.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I came back to Nashville and the people were still in the rooms when I had left five years before. And I was willing to do whatever they told me to do. I got really really involved in service work. I figured if I could be on every committee they had, I\u2019d be that much cleaner.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t really work that way, but I met so many people. I got a sponsor, worked steps, and it worked. I started working retail and eventually got a job in A&D (Alcohol & Drug) council.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

And I started going to meetings every day. And I still go to meetings every day. That pink cloud? It\u2019s never worn off on me.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The music came back on. I was brushing my teeth one day and I was back.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I feel like I\u2019m superior to everyone else. Most people don\u2019t sit in a room for an hour each day figuring out how they\u2019re gonna be better people.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I recognize I have unconditional love. I got to the point where I really do believe that being an addict is a gift. I don\u2019t regret the fact that I\u2019m a recovering drug addict.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I think my life has a dimension that others don\u2019t have.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

My friend and I said it\u2019s like going through a portal and coming out in an alternate reality. I\u2019m so happy I took the trip.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Thanks so much for sharing your story, Lisa, and happy birthday.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lisa B. turns 12 today (June 18). OK, she\u2019s actually 55. But Lisa celebrates 12 years clean today, and I\u2019m thrilled to mark the day with her telling her story. In part, that\u2019s because she pays it forward: Lisa now works for an agency that helps teens with issues with drugs. Here\u2019s her story: Growing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":222,"href":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192\/revisions\/222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}