Every morning when Patti Wladika was using heroin, she had the same routine.

Wladika would wake up at her boyfriend's house, get a fix of heroin ready and make a mixed drink of vodka and Hi-C. She would sit in her brown rocking chair at around 6 a.m., shooting heroin and drinking.

“It hit me and I would be like, ready for the day,” said Wladika, 50, of Butler.

If one were to see Wladika now, they might never know she was once a daily heroin user. She has been in recovery from addiction for nine years.

“(Addiction) can be beat,” Wladika said. “You can overcome it and be a productive member of society, and get your family back and friends back, but you have to work at it. It's not just going to come like that.”

At the same time, Wladika and others in recovery, including Jason Beckwith, 40, of Butler, are taking a stand against the common misconception that addiction is not a disease.

“The use of drugs or alcohol alters a person's brain chemistry and function, turning a choice into a desperate need,” Beckwith said. “Give a man in the desert (who is) truly dying of thirst a gallon of water, and tell him not to drink any of it for 24 hours and you will give him all the water he wants afterward. That's the battle we fight.”