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Resident recounts decades of addiction, credits Emerald Coast Life Center and Celebrate Recovery with recovery
Summary
A resident described starting substance use in early adolescence, 27 fentanyl overdoses since 2019, suicide attempts and a turn to local recovery programs including Emerald Coast Life Center and Celebrate Recovery.
A resident who spoke at the meeting said years of substance use beginning in early adolescence led to repeated overdoses, a suicide attempt and eventual recovery with help from local programs.
The resident said she began using alcohol and drugs in her early teens — “age 11 or 12” — after older brothers introduced her to drinking and that family addiction and untreated trauma contributed to her substance use. She said her opioid use escalated while under medical care, and she described relying on prescription pills from her oncologist and pain doctor, identifying Percocets and “Roxies” and saying the pills cost about $300 a day.
“I woke up in the hospital. I had overdosed in Walmart's bathroom,” the resident said. She told the meeting that between 2019 and February 2025 she had “overdosed 27 times on fentanyl.” She also said she attempted suicide and that her substance use eventually included heroin and frequent use to “get through the day.”
The resident said she sought help at Emerald Coast Life Center, where she reconnected with a person she knew on the street, Dana Claw, and began recovery work. She said she later entered Celebrate Recovery and has moved into a leadership role there: “on the July 4, two years ago, I walked in the doors of Celebrate Recovery, and I am now in leadership. I run step studies. I do CR out in the jail. They're my family.”
She described recovery as a process of addressing trauma, learning coping tools and relying on a sponsor and recovery classes: “When I have an issue, what to do, where to go. I've taken wellness recovery action classes so that I have these tools…instead of running to a drink or a drug.”
The resident urged others seeking sobriety to commit the same intensity to recovery that they had to using and obtaining drugs: “You gotta be just aggressive about your sobriety and getting sober as you were about getting money and getting high on the streets.”
She closed by saying her recovery was faith-supported: “And I made it with God. He's the reason. So if anybody ever wants to get sober, I can tell you he will be your friend, and he will get you there.”
