Bridget – P.E.A.S.E. Academy Senior
Bridget started drinking in her home at 10, smoking marijuana at 12, and popping pills at 14 and cocaine and other drugs at 15. She grew up with drugs. Her parents were addicted to alcohol and marijuana and were aware that she was using.
Bridget got drugs wherever she could find them, and she says the way she got them was dangerous. “I prostituted myself every day,” she said. “And the way I mixed the drugs was also dangerous.” She ended up overdosing on fentanyl and went to hospital, into an intensive out-patient treatment program.
Bridget entered P.E.A.S.E. Academy straight from treatment. She was sent home after two months because she started using again. And, at home, her parents were still using.
The time away from her new, sober friends was hard for Bridget, so she went back into treatment and after meeting the 30 days sober requirement, was re-admitted to P.E.A.S.E.
She says, “Without P.E.A.S.E., I would probably be dead because the things I was doing were threatening my life every day.”
Recovery is hard every day,” Bridget says. “I’m obsessed with drugs, but I’m not going to do them anymore because I have one year of sobriety and I don’t want to use or lie anymore. I have learned to respect myself.” And, Bridget has become a role model for her parents, who also became sober because of P.E.A.S.E. Her mom has been sober three months and her dad, one month.
Bridget says she loves P.E.A.S.E. Academy because everyone accepts each other, and the teachers want you to succeed. Simple math and getting up early is harder now, but she says, “The teachers are also in recovery, so they understand and support you in making your grades and making up credits from when you were using. If you go back to your old high school, nobody knows or understands. People aren’t sober there.”
