Hi, my name is Grace, and I am a grateful recovering addict. When I look back at my first times using, although I wasn’t using often, I could never control how my night would end up. When I went away to university at 18, I found my drug of choice, it very quickly became the number one priority in my life. Over the course of 6 months I lost relationships with my close friends and family, I failed out of university, and drugs and alcohol took over my life. I battled with addiction for the next 3 years, and it progressed to a point where I could not go a few hours without a substance in my body. Everything revolved around using, and how I could get my next fix. My mental, physical, and spiritual health was declining fast. There were no boundaries I wouldn’t cross. My parents asked me many times not to use in their home, then they finally asked me to leave. I was using at work and getting involved with shady people. I put myself in vulnerable situations that led to many traumatic events. Last summer I got a DUI charge, even after this, I still couldn’t admit that I needed help. I truly believed that things weren’t bad enough, and that I could get a handle on my problem. After a few months of failed attempts at getting clean, and trying to use successfully, I came to a place of complete defeat. I could no longer manage my life and knew that in a matter of time I would either lose everything or lose my life.

This is when I decided to reach out for help, and Westminster House was recommended to me. I called every day for a few weeks and took the steps to get myself a bed as soon as possible. Within the first couple weeks at the house, I knew I had found a solution to the way I was living. It didn’t matter that my story was different from others. Once I started looking at the similarities rather than the differences, and focused on the feelings associated with this disease, I knew I was in the right place. When I fully surrendered to the program and admitted that I was an addict who was powerless over my addiction, my whole world opened up. The house taught me the importance of female relationships in my life, how to live in harmony with one another, and introduced me to the program of Narcotics Anonymous. Through working the 12 steps, I have gained the tools that I need to live a life as a purposeful functioning member of society. Today I am over 5 months clean and am actively working a program of recovery in my life. I have hope for my future, and a connection with a loving Higher Power. I can confidently say that I like the person I am today.

-Grace B.