11/06/2014
Mindy's Story:
Honesty And Commitment Lead To Recovery
For most of Mindy’s 19 years of life, she was a
“normal kid” who swam on the school swim team and
looked forward to trips to the zoo with her mother.
The youngest of four sisters, Mindy enjoyed art and
French class, and her classmates at the high school
she attended. Drugs and alcohol had never been a
problem. “I didn’t drink, smoke pot or anything,” she
says. But Mindy’s boyfriend was another story.
“My boyfriend was into heroin,” she says. Though she
was tempted to try it, she never did.
And then in
2009, he jabbed her with a heroin-filled syringe as
she walked by. Mindy was shocked – at first – then
grew to need the drug.
It wasn’t long before Mindy became addicted. “I’d use
once every couple of weeks,” she says. “But then it
progressed…and I was doing it every day.”
She was also stealing money from her parents to buy
drugs. The combination of lying, stealing and
addiction led to a breakdown. “I was going through
counseling and I told my therapist about all the lying
and using behind my parents back,” she says. Mindy
told her parents about her drug use and tried hard to
quit. But she couldn’t.
By March 2009, Mindy had returned to a daily habit,
and along with an acquaintance, brought drugs and
needles with her for a three-day senior retreat. But
school staff discovered their plans, and called Mindy’s
parents to come and pick her up. Just two months
shy of graduating, Mindy was expelled from high
school.
She was given a job at her father’s business to keep
her busy while her parents looked for ways to help
their daughter. They found Hope Academy, the
recovery high school at Fairbanks. By then Mindy had
quit using again, and felt good about enrolling at
Hope.
“I immediately clicked with the staff,” she says. “But
the expectations were different than what I was used
to. They weren’t just focused on your grades. They
were focused on your sobriety, too.”
Still, Mindy continued to struggle with her addiction.
“I relapsed during the school year,” she says. “Then
the staff at Hope convinced me to take a tour of
Fairbanks treatment center.” Mindy stayed in the
adolescent unit at Fairbanks for the next six weeks.
Throughout her time at Fairbanks and Hope
Academy, Mindy experienced several relapses, the
worst coming over the Christmas holiday. “Normally
when I relapsed I would use once or twice,” Mindy
says. This time she used every day for the entire
break.
Yet instead of hiding her relapse, Mindy told Hope
staff about it. “I knew that was what I was supposed
to do,” she says. “For once, it started to work out
because I had done the right thing. And from that
point on it became easier and easier for me to
maintain my sobriety.”
Mindy has been sober since January 1st. She credits
her success in part to Hope staff and to lessons she
received while she was at the school. “Dr. Z really
helped me work through a lot of issues,” she says,
referring to Hope Academy staff member, Dr. Sig
Zielke. “I finally had someone to talk to who wasn’t a
therapist or my parents.”
One of the most important lessons was making a
commitment to honesty – with herself, and with
others. “I learned I had to be honest with myself,”
Mindy says. “I had been lying to myself.”
Mindy graduated from Hope Academy on May 28th,
2010, and has enrolled at IVY Tech Community
College. After she finishes at IVY Tech she wants to
earn a degree in mortuary sciences, but is taking life
one day at a time. “I live by that,” she says with a
smile.
