My Life in Overview: By Jenn Snow

          My name is Jenn and I am a recovering drug addict and alcoholic. At the young age of 13, I started sneaking beer from my parents when my friends would come over to stay the night. Drinking was my way of trying to “fit in” and feel accepted. Gradually, it kept getting worse. Over the years, it went from only drinking with friends to feel accepted, to now trying to cover up the emptiness inside of me that I needed filled. I loved the attention I was getting from everyone while I would be out drinking. My biggest fear had finally come true: I was an alcoholic like my mother. 

          Eventually, alcohol wasn’t enough to hide my pain and hurt anymore, so I turned to street drugs, which had completely taken over my life. I ended up losing everything, including all my children, and becoming homeless.  For many years, I struggled with my addiction and kept trying to hide from life, when all I was doing was letting it pass me by and missing out on my children growing up.  I couldn’t seem to figure out how to pull myself up out of the gutters until the beginning of this year, when I finally hit rock bottom and had enough.

          At that extreme low, I was four months pregnant with my now three-month-old daughter Payton. Homeless, sleeping outside in cars, and still using drugs in the middle of winter, I became sick and tired of being sick and tired. At this point, I knew it was time to make a change. I went to the Community Counseling Center and got a case manager; someone who would help me get on the right track and start moving my life forward in the right way.  She got me involved in IOP (Intensive Outpatient Therapy), which is a drug rehab program that lasts three or four months. I then signed up for another Section 8 program called Shelter Care Plus to help get me off of the streets.

            My case manager took me to Ashtabula County Job and Family Services to sign me up for the PRIDE Program at Goodwill. It took me almost two months to get approved for the Shelter Care Plus, but thankfully, I now have my own apartment and have been there for four months. During that time, I had also managed to start my drug classes, and have since graduated from that.  Now I’m following up with a group called Relapse Prevention, and attending 12 step meetings regularly.  I just recently got a sponsor, which I am very excited about.  Now that I am back from maternity leave, I have started the PRIDE Program at Goodwill again, and this time, I am not pregnant, so I can fully participate in all of the classes and work. I am very thrilled to see where I can go and what I can accomplish. I have nothing but a positive outlook on my new journey in life, now that the path has taken an uplifting turn.