Erica Radical honesty and overcoming addiction

Erica’s story is not what it seems. She spent most of her life making people believe a different story on the outside then the one she was living on the inside. Erica knew she was different from a young age but she couldn’t reconcile what this difference was. She watched her fathers relationship with alcohol and she knew death was not far off. This scared her but there was also something deeper that was gnawing at her from within. Sometimes to avoid pain and the discomfort that powerful emotions can have on us we turn to drugs and other addictions that act as attention diverters. Drugs can wash away the feelings of sadness, pain and the fears of confronting “reality”. This is the path that Erica ended up traversing. Yet the way she was able to do it was again not typical or what it seemed from the outside. Erica was able to maintain a really prominent job and everyone in her life had new clue that she had a substance abuse problem. The mask that Erica was able to wear allowed her to live on the edge for a long time. This is her story of drug use, relationships, family and ultimately getting sober and finding purpose and meaning in life and becoming a resource for other people who are where she used to be — because she walked the walk, now Erica is able to be there for those who are desperately in need of another humans support. We spoke about how honesty can give you liberty and how Erica realized that she no longer needs to live in fear. Erica wishes that when she was younger that she would have had access to these following links. They can make all the difference in your life… having someone there who can listen to you and help be there for you whether you have fallen and need help or support as you are getting back on your feet. https://www.aa.org/ https://na.org/ https://www.chacmv.org/ https://lgbtq.smcgov.org/