Addicts share messages of hope
BUTLER TWP — The stories of women who have struggled with addiction and managed to rebuild their lives and families were on display Wednesday at the Ellen O'Brien Gaiser Addiction Center's annual community luncheon.
Earlier this year the center opened an expanded treatment facility dedicated to serving women, while Butler County continues to struggle with an opioid addiction and overdose crisis, which has led to 67 deaths so far this year. Wednesday's event at Butler Country Club was a reminder that the victims of that crisis come from all corners of the county.
Tara, a Butler native from a “normal family,” said her struggle with addiction started at age 18, when she first tried heroin, and lasted until she was 30. Along the way she had her first child — a son that was born in 2004.
“I caused a lot of people, and myself, pain and suffering,” she said.
Now, Tara said, she's clean and sober thanks to the Gaiser Center, where she found compassion and friends to help her get her life under control.
Tara's story wasn't the only one on display Wednesday. Laurie Besden, executive director of Lawyers Concerned for lawyers, a Camp Hill-based nonprofit that focuses on helping lawyers and judges deal with everything from substance abuse to eating disorders and compulsive behaviors, also spoke.
Besden said it's important for people to remember that the crisis is universal. She grew up in an upper class family in eastern Pennsylvania, and offered herself up as an example.
“Until I was in an addiction I, too, thought that it only happens to certain people,” Besden said. “I thought I was immune.”
Besden is a lawyer, but she’s also a recovering addict who abused prescription pills and cocaine for years while still managing to maintain a near-perfect GPA in law school and hold down demanding clerkships and other legal work for years.
A full report will appear in the Butler Eagle.
