Having left her foster family at age 14, Amy went through more than 8 rehabs while dealing with addiction and substance abuse. She shares her struggle through addiction, rehabilitation, losing her son and her life and finally achieving full recovery with methadone treatment.
“I was adopted from Little Wanderers Orphanage in Belfast. I was under a year old when my mother and father adopted me. I always felt I didn’t fit, and it wasn’t lack of love. I never felt like I fit anywhere.
I left home around my 15th birthday.
At the time, psychedelics were the drug of choice.
I went and lived in Silver Palace, a drug house in the town that I live in.
I used off and on different things. It started with psychedelics, then cocaine, and that took me down real quick. When I found out I was pregnant with my son, I quit everything. It was important to me to be a good mom.
My addiction came back after a year. I ended up in my first rehab when my son was two. The final straw was when I got arrested with morphine sulfate. The year was 1991, I lost my son and I felt like I lost the best part of me.
After ending up on the beach outside the hotel I was staying in with my boyfriend, I asked some ‘god’ to please me show a sign. The very next moment I found a sand dollar and knew it was time to leave.
I called the police and said I needed a safe place to stay until I can get a ride out of town, they came and picked me up and that was the beginning of turning everything around.
I ended up in Acadia Hospital. I graduated a little over six months later. Two years later, I got my son back, and I was working as a nurse’s aid.
Methadone maintenance had never been offered to me before, and I wish it had a long time ago. It gave me my life back.
“Methadone is a treatment that helps people like me be a better me.”
