Apr 25, 2017 4 min read

As opioid addiction continues to change our communities and the lives of addicts in their families, I can’t and won’t give up hope.

Listening to two recovery specialists at the Connellsville Opioid Town Hall meeting in late March encouraged me and restored faith that my brother, who is incarcerated for a drug-related crime could have the same success as Stephanie Welc and Stephen Carson.

Listening to Welc and Carson, certified recovery specialists at Highlands Hospital Center of Excellence tell their stories amazed me. Their stories are not too different from ones I’ve heard before. Everyone has a personal story but addiction seems to have the common thread of gradually luring its victims into a world of fun and empowerment that quickly turns into a world of dependence that changes the person inside and out leading them down a path of desperation, degradation and often times crime, isolating them from family and friends and even the person they once identified as self.

Both Welc and Carson said they were loved by their family; popular at school; involved in activities but still drugs found them. Welc became addicted to prescription medication after two car accidents. Carson said his addiction “started in the medicine cabinet.” Neither of them thought they were in danger by taking prescription drugs and neither identified themselves as an addict — something that would make their recovery much harder.

“Addiction is the only disease that a person suffering from it has to admit they are suffering in the first place,” Carson pointed out.

He said because he didn’t fit the image of the dirty vagrant holding a bottle in a paper bag, he didn’t think his problem was that bad.

“When I’m thinking of an addict, I’m thinking dereliction, degradation, vagrant. Words like that come to mind.”

What gave me hope though, while listening to Welc and Carson speak about their addiction-where they came from and the depths they had fallen to, was that they didn’t look like a person who suffered that struggle. These two beautiful, well-adjusted, articulate people in front of me did not look like addicts.

I couldn’t imagine Carson putting a needle in his arm. Welc did not look like a lady who had been to jail. She did not resemble a person who would steal money from her parents or steal from stores, but she did.

“I was raised better than that, but when you’re addicted we don’t act the same way we used to,” Welc said.

I can relate to that. My siblings were brought up better than that too.

It may sound like I’m contradicting myself, but I’m not. I know that anyone can succumb to addiction and that addicts don’t always look like the dirty vagrant living under the bridge.

I can relate to the realization that addicts do not fit the image that society has painted in our heads. My brother is not that guy.

My sister, who died from an overdose in May, was not that girl. She had a master’s degree in human development. This is not the end I expected for her. I still can’t believe she is gone at the hands of addiction.

So while I’m familiar with the idea of beautiful, well-educated, loved individuals succumbing to addiction. What I’m not used to is seeing those people return to their former state of grace. I know it happens. But I haven’t seen it. You have to remember my sister is dead. My brother is incarcerated and been in jail for five years. Even when people I know have managed to lessen the severity of their addiction and manage to avoid prison, I don’t think I have witnessed a person totally clean from drugs and alcohol. I’m more used to seeing functional addicts. People who manage their addictions. So Welc and Carson were refreshing to me.

They are recovered — Carson for three years now. They clearly state that they are abstinent from all mind-altering substances. They are now helping others and they displayed no clues indicating the hell they had pulled themselves out of. It’s too late for my sister, which is heartbreaking. But it’s something I hope for my brother when he is released from prison — a continued and total recovery; a return to his former state of grace. I know it may be a struggle, but Welc and Carson showed me it is possible and I’m forever grateful for that. I found some peace in that. I have hope.