My Story - Living with Addiction
"My Story - Living with Addiction" is a periodic series of articles examining the lives of people who have battled with addiction to drugs.
For someone deep in the throes of an addiction to heroin or opioids, it's not that uncommon to end up in the news. What is uncommon is fighting that battle while already being a public figure, which means headlines a regular person might not get.
ASHLAND - Last week during a group session, Joe Tackett, 64, of Ashland, realized he had been in recovery for 10 years. He went out and purchased a new watch - adding to his collection of 22.
If you would have asked Jennifer Wilson just more than a year ago if she was doing OK, she would have replied with a resounding "yes."
HUNTINGTON - Todd Crandell has participated in 28 Ironman competitions across six continents and 15 countries.
His first Ironman was in 1999. Just six years earlier, he had been arrested for his third DUI after blowing a .36 at noon.
HUNTINGTON - Jeffrey Els' son never wanted for any material thing. For Christmas, he would have the latest toys and electronics.
HUNTINGTON - It took William "Billy" Thaxton, 31, some time to admit that he had a problem. Thaxton, a St. Albans, West Virginia, native, began drinking at 13 after his parents divorced and his mother left. Now he has been sober for more than 20 months.
HUNTINGTON - There is no age limit to recovery. Just ask 52-year-old James Coleman. "I've been an addict for 37 years," Coleman said. "I started with marijuana, drinking and benzos. I worked my way up to pain pills into heroin. Then that became my drug of choice. I've been on heroin for 18 years on and off. It's been a rough ride, but these last five years have been a blur. I can't remember a lot of it."
HUNTINGTON - It took Huntington native Mary Deel some time to realize she was worth saving. Deel, 40, was married at 16 and went on to have nine children.
HUNTINGTON - Sitting in class at Recovery Point of Huntington working on his recovery, Kentucky native Jeremy Brown had a heart attack.
HUNTINGTON - Driving down 3rd Avenue on Tuesday, Nicole Hammonds saw smoke rising into the clear blue sky.
Barboursville native Aaron Johnson, 29, had a special moment last Tuesday. His daughter celebrated her first birthday, but it was she who gave her dad a gift - she said "dada" for the first time. Just 90 days ago, Johnson might not have been alive to witness it.
HUNTINGTON - Looking around his new office as publisher of "Herd Insider" at Kindred Communications, 50-year-old Huntingtonian Greg Perry is very aware it all shouldn't be happening.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is part of a periodic series of articles examining the lives of people who have battled with addiction to drugs.
HUNTINGTON - Two weeks before his son was born on the coldest night of the year, Will Lockwood woke up in the hospital after suffering his first overdose.
HUNTINGTON - Greg Perry, now four years into his recovery, is the project coordinator at Recovery Point of Huntington. Tuesday, he handed a certificate to the man who helped him take the steps he needed to get to where he is today.
EDITOR人妖色情片橲 NOTE: This is part of a periodic series of articles examining the lives of people who have battled with addiction to drugs.
HUNTINGTON - Any person working in recovery will tell you there is no single way to overcome a drug habit.
Richard Meade, of Huntington, knows first-hand that is true.
HUNTINGTON - Motherhood used to terrify 31-year-old mother of two Amber "Red" Brescoach. Stemming from her own rocky relationship with her mother and fueled by her drug addiction, there was a point at which she wasn't sure she even wanted to be a mother.
HUNTINGTON - Parts of his story sound like it could be from a movie. Smoking pot for the first time around the age of 5, Thomas, now 34, led a hazy life of self-medicating his attention deficit disorder and bipolar disorder and hopping trains, taking anything that would get him to his next high.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is one of a series of periodic articles examining the lives of people who have battled with addiction to drugs or alcohol.
HUNTINGTON - If the phone rings for her husband at 3 a.m., Kathy Melba will never be upset because she knows the next night it could be for her.
HUNTINGTON - Despite everything, Deeidra Beckett, 45, knows her journey was a gift.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is part of a series of periodic articles examining the lives of people who have battled with addiction to drugs.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is part of a periodic series of articles examining the lives of people who have battled with addiction to drugs.
HUNTINGTON - Allison "Ally" Workman, a 26-year-old single mother of two, no longer has any trouble asking for help when she needs it as she begins her life of recovery from substance abuse.
HUNTINGTON - Kit Roberts said it wasn't exactly hitting rock bottom, but more of a feeling of impending doom that caused him to enter treatment for his addiction.
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