Client Highlight: Shawna M.
Can you describe the moment when you realized you wanted to start your journey of recovery?
“I wasn't present for my son anymore. I wasn't present for him and I was missing everything he was doing. It was the worst feeling and I just wanted to be with him so it's like, ‘alright something's got to change’. You know, you always try to fool yourself with ‘I’m in control’ or ‘I can turn this around’ but you can’t and I think one day I just realized ‘This is not okay, I’m officially too far gone’”.
What have been some of the most significant challenges you’ve encountered and how have you handled them along the way?
“I think for me the biggest challenge has been the huge transitions I've had to make and as hard as they were, you know, they say ‘nothing changes, if nothing changes’ and they say that you have to change your people, places, and things. All of those had to go and it was really, really hard and it's still really, really hard but it's worth it. Every day I could see a little bit more and I just had to remind myself that I have to keep going this way.”
Have you discovered new activities or practices that have positively impacted your recovery?
“I've always loved all the mindfulness stuff.I love incorporating it into gardening, I’m not good at gardening but I love doing it- planning for it, getting ready, I have my son help me too. We go together to pick out flowers, I love it.”
What Driftless Recovery services have you/do you participate in? What have you found helpful?
“Everything's been helpful. I've come for a couple different therapy sessions and I did the 10-week SOP group. Now I’m following that up with the 10 week Relapse Prevention group. These groups are one of the biggest pieces for me, they provide me with community. I ran across that saying again-‘The opposite of addiction is connection’, that’s so true, so I’m sticking to that.”
What are some milestones or achievements you feel proud of?
“I just got my 6-month coin again. It's not my first one but it's my favorite one. I'm so excited, you know, 6 months of a totally different life! There were definitely plenty of times when I was second-guessing things like ‘maybe I could go back to it and things would just be different’ but that’s not the truth. I think the fact that I've done six months doing all of the right things is a big achievement.”
What have you learned about yourself during your time in services?
“I have learned that I have what it takes to do it alone but I don't have to. I'm happy relying on other people to help me up when I need it even though I could just be stubborn and try to do everything on my own. Why, you know, when there's people there that can help me, why would I do it alone?”
What plans/goals do you have for yourself moving forward?
“I want to keep all these skills that I've gotten for myself- being independent, assertive, feeling like I’m worth something. I know that I have to do the long-term maintenance and keep up with working my program. It’s work but it’s that kind of work that you feel good about doing at the end of the day. You might be exhausted but you know that you did good work. One day at a time, I’m just going to keep doing the work.”
Shawna’s message to the readers:
“The most valuable lesson (and I already said it) is that connection is so important. You probably can do these things by yourself but why would you want to when there are so many people (so many good people) around that can offer different perspectives on how to approach things? Or some can even just lend a listening ear when it's just really really hard. Find those people!”
