Healing Addiction End The Stigma
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Hi, I'm Ashley. I'm not accustomed to asking for help from anyone. In fact, I can count on one hand how many times I have. So, let me just say that starting this campaign has been difficult for me, due to my history that you can share here below on this page. Thank you for taking the time to read my story,
I was an active addict from the years 2003-2007. My addiction became obvious to the outside and unmanageable for me personally during 2004. And what I mean by this is, I found myself alone, abashedly addicted and completely homeless. A place I never imagined I could ever be.
In 2003 I had an emergency surgical procedure that was over before I really knew what had actually been done. I was in for a routine check up, the next thing I know I'm under a surgeon's knife in a procedure that I would inevitably regret for the rest of my life.
After the initial procedure, I began having horrific bouts of unexplained pain shooting through my abdomen. Upon going in for my post op visit, I was told there were complications from the procedure. I needed another surgery, right on the tail end of the first. And the journey begins.
For over 4 months, I was steadily taking prescribed pain meds on a regular basis, as required by my doctor. To make a painful and long story short, I found myself in more pain without the pain meds when all was said and done. I had become addicted.
I never thought in those early days of taking pain pills for legitimate pain, that I could ever end up homeless, addicted and alone. I pushed my family and all of my friends away because I was so ashamed, and unfortunately that's what addicts do when their strung out. I felt broken and weak. I had no idea how to stop the cycle of madness. I was stuck in a rut and I couldn’t break out.
The year 2004 came around fast for me. I had been addicted and on the streets by myself for two years at this point. I spent my days sleeping in a stolen car, locked up in various county jails or I was caught up in the "finding ways and means to get more" pattern of the addicted. All to feed my outrageous addiction to opioids. The appetite for more came naturally and grew like it was it's own entity that had taken me over. The human body becomes tolerant and it demands more drugs in order to keep you well and to prevent you from going into physical withdrawal. Withdrawal has it’s own set of demons surrounding it. The addicts fear of withdrawal is what kept me using and utterly stuck in active addiction for so long. In the end that's all addiction is, trying not to be dope sick and avoiding withdrawal at any cost. I didn't try to become addicted, it just happened, almost overnight it seemed.
Throughout my active addiction, I found myself in abusive relationships due to my nonexistent self-esteem and my rapidly disintegrating integrity that I had once known and owned so well prior to addiction. So, being afflicted with flesh wounds, scars and bruises was the norm for me. My address was always "Anywhere, USA" and I became hardened to the people staring at me in disgust. People can be very cruel to those who are broken and homeless. It’s quite enlightening to see the true colors of human kind in all its forms, from unexplainable generosity to insidiously evil attacks. I've had a chance to bear witness and feel it all. While I was thrashing about in the dark, I tried to keep reminding myself that I was once in their shoes, and I had also unintentionally at one time judged others the way that I was now being judged. In some way, that gave me hope.
The life of the addict portrayed in Hollywood is far from truth. Somehow, down the road of the addicted we forget that we ever had a choice not to use. Couple that "no choice but to use" on top of "fear of withdrawal" and you have an inevitable recipe for jails, institutions and death.
I experienced a few earth shattering moments out there of overdosing, coming back and then overdosing again. Honestly, in last 3 months of my active addiction, I was just trying to end my suffering by consuming anything and everything, I just wanted to disappear. The last night I used was on June 8, 2007. It's a night I will never forget. It's the night that led me here, to the pages of my go fund me campaign.
My story is brutal and not so friendly, but along my path I experienced the depths of the human spirit that I have yet to locate in any book thus far. This is why I am compelled to tell my story. I possess extensive wisdom around the issues of addiction from my own personal experience that have not been explored before, I believe due to the limitations of a particular "mind set" and "stigma" that has been attached to the mere mention of addiction.
I now know what can and does work to heal addiction. I also on the other hand, know what does not work. I have exhaustively compiled all of my experiences and lessons into a 7 book series that I'm calling, "Kentucky Junkie." It's a documentary of sorts, detailing addiction and homelessness in all forms, surviving on the streets, and the addict stigma. I also explore the feelings of hopelessness and despair answered with miracles of the Creator, and angelic events with photos and evidence of all that we know is out there, but sometimes are too afraid to believe in.
I came to this planet for this very experience, to enlighten humanity with a new loving and supportive solution for addiction. I was born for this. As we see all across this globe, we are awakening. It is the time of the Great Awakening. I'm stepping up now to rise to the demands of the people of this planet. We will heal this opioid pandemic that has claimed far too many lives of our people. No human being on this planet needs to be trapped in the chains of addiction that lead to inevitable death. It’s just not okay anymore. Every soul has a birthright to be free, whole and complete, unto them. Free from all restraints of the world that keep us from experiencing love, joy and peace. Most of us that became addicted are wonderfully sensitive and kind people, we've just been misunderstood for far too long.
Please help me to make the tools available, so that every person on this planet can choose to live freely and recover their own way. We can make the right tools available and they can heal. We all have different needs. Not all addicts are the same. There is not just one way to recover, as we have been fooled into believing for so long. Help me bust our addicted free from the Addiction/Recovery Matrix. I’ll be frank with you, if there was just one way to recover that worked for addicts, would we really be losing 175 lives per day to opioid overdose? The answer is no.
I have solutions to end addiction, and I'm willing to teach others and put the solutions out there and make them readily available, so that we all can heal. Asking for your personal support is the only way I can make my content readily downloadable and available to everyone that needs it. We are all affected greatly by this problem. Please help me make a positive difference.
Thank you so much for your support and generosity - I will not let you down. I promise to do my best to assist in this crisis with everything that I am and all that I have within me. I'm grateful for your time and thank you for being a part of the solution. Grateful to be alive and free!
Ashley Kaye Adams
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleykayeadams333/
http://www.kentuckyjunkie.com
https://twitter.com/411AlphaHunter
https://youtu.be/Zi2FePrqoxg
I was an active addict from the years 2003-2007. My addiction became obvious to the outside and unmanageable for me personally during 2004. And what I mean by this is, I found myself alone, abashedly addicted and completely homeless. A place I never imagined I could ever be.
In 2003 I had an emergency surgical procedure that was over before I really knew what had actually been done. I was in for a routine check up, the next thing I know I'm under a surgeon's knife in a procedure that I would inevitably regret for the rest of my life.
After the initial procedure, I began having horrific bouts of unexplained pain shooting through my abdomen. Upon going in for my post op visit, I was told there were complications from the procedure. I needed another surgery, right on the tail end of the first. And the journey begins.
For over 4 months, I was steadily taking prescribed pain meds on a regular basis, as required by my doctor. To make a painful and long story short, I found myself in more pain without the pain meds when all was said and done. I had become addicted.
I never thought in those early days of taking pain pills for legitimate pain, that I could ever end up homeless, addicted and alone. I pushed my family and all of my friends away because I was so ashamed, and unfortunately that's what addicts do when their strung out. I felt broken and weak. I had no idea how to stop the cycle of madness. I was stuck in a rut and I couldn’t break out.
The year 2004 came around fast for me. I had been addicted and on the streets by myself for two years at this point. I spent my days sleeping in a stolen car, locked up in various county jails or I was caught up in the "finding ways and means to get more" pattern of the addicted. All to feed my outrageous addiction to opioids. The appetite for more came naturally and grew like it was it's own entity that had taken me over. The human body becomes tolerant and it demands more drugs in order to keep you well and to prevent you from going into physical withdrawal. Withdrawal has it’s own set of demons surrounding it. The addicts fear of withdrawal is what kept me using and utterly stuck in active addiction for so long. In the end that's all addiction is, trying not to be dope sick and avoiding withdrawal at any cost. I didn't try to become addicted, it just happened, almost overnight it seemed.
Throughout my active addiction, I found myself in abusive relationships due to my nonexistent self-esteem and my rapidly disintegrating integrity that I had once known and owned so well prior to addiction. So, being afflicted with flesh wounds, scars and bruises was the norm for me. My address was always "Anywhere, USA" and I became hardened to the people staring at me in disgust. People can be very cruel to those who are broken and homeless. It’s quite enlightening to see the true colors of human kind in all its forms, from unexplainable generosity to insidiously evil attacks. I've had a chance to bear witness and feel it all. While I was thrashing about in the dark, I tried to keep reminding myself that I was once in their shoes, and I had also unintentionally at one time judged others the way that I was now being judged. In some way, that gave me hope.
The life of the addict portrayed in Hollywood is far from truth. Somehow, down the road of the addicted we forget that we ever had a choice not to use. Couple that "no choice but to use" on top of "fear of withdrawal" and you have an inevitable recipe for jails, institutions and death.
I experienced a few earth shattering moments out there of overdosing, coming back and then overdosing again. Honestly, in last 3 months of my active addiction, I was just trying to end my suffering by consuming anything and everything, I just wanted to disappear. The last night I used was on June 8, 2007. It's a night I will never forget. It's the night that led me here, to the pages of my go fund me campaign.
My story is brutal and not so friendly, but along my path I experienced the depths of the human spirit that I have yet to locate in any book thus far. This is why I am compelled to tell my story. I possess extensive wisdom around the issues of addiction from my own personal experience that have not been explored before, I believe due to the limitations of a particular "mind set" and "stigma" that has been attached to the mere mention of addiction.
I now know what can and does work to heal addiction. I also on the other hand, know what does not work. I have exhaustively compiled all of my experiences and lessons into a 7 book series that I'm calling, "Kentucky Junkie." It's a documentary of sorts, detailing addiction and homelessness in all forms, surviving on the streets, and the addict stigma. I also explore the feelings of hopelessness and despair answered with miracles of the Creator, and angelic events with photos and evidence of all that we know is out there, but sometimes are too afraid to believe in.
I came to this planet for this very experience, to enlighten humanity with a new loving and supportive solution for addiction. I was born for this. As we see all across this globe, we are awakening. It is the time of the Great Awakening. I'm stepping up now to rise to the demands of the people of this planet. We will heal this opioid pandemic that has claimed far too many lives of our people. No human being on this planet needs to be trapped in the chains of addiction that lead to inevitable death. It’s just not okay anymore. Every soul has a birthright to be free, whole and complete, unto them. Free from all restraints of the world that keep us from experiencing love, joy and peace. Most of us that became addicted are wonderfully sensitive and kind people, we've just been misunderstood for far too long.
Please help me to make the tools available, so that every person on this planet can choose to live freely and recover their own way. We can make the right tools available and they can heal. We all have different needs. Not all addicts are the same. There is not just one way to recover, as we have been fooled into believing for so long. Help me bust our addicted free from the Addiction/Recovery Matrix. I’ll be frank with you, if there was just one way to recover that worked for addicts, would we really be losing 175 lives per day to opioid overdose? The answer is no.
I have solutions to end addiction, and I'm willing to teach others and put the solutions out there and make them readily available, so that we all can heal. Asking for your personal support is the only way I can make my content readily downloadable and available to everyone that needs it. We are all affected greatly by this problem. Please help me make a positive difference.
Thank you so much for your support and generosity - I will not let you down. I promise to do my best to assist in this crisis with everything that I am and all that I have within me. I'm grateful for your time and thank you for being a part of the solution. Grateful to be alive and free!
Ashley Kaye Adams
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleykayeadams333/
http://www.kentuckyjunkie.com
https://twitter.com/411AlphaHunter
https://youtu.be/Zi2FePrqoxg
Organizer
Ashley Kaye Adams
Organizer
Marana, AZ