Amber’s Story
Hi, my name is Amber and Donna is my substance abuse counselor. I tell her often that she saved my life six years ago but she tells me it was someone else who did; someone very special. You see, I had been on drugs since I was thirteen and at twenty gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. He was hooked on cocaine, though, and that was totally my fault. They put him in neonatal intensive care and then told me he would be going to a foster home. I would be going to jail.
I remember I flipped out. I screamed and fought them from the hospital to the detention center. After finding out my son and I were high on cocaine, a search of my purse found a bag. I was arrested. I kept screaming while in a holding cell and eventually a guard came in with this woman in her mid-thirties or so. There was something about this woman and for the first time since my arrest, I quieted down and really listened to someone.
Donna asked me some hard soul-searching questions that night. She told me she was not a lawyer and not a guard but a substance abuse counselor and whatever I said to her would be confidential. I remember I looked her in the eye that night and told her I just wanted to kill myself because I had lost the one person I had ever loved. I fell in love with my son the moment I first held him and looked into his eyes.
Donna made arrangements with the judge to get me into a withdrawal treatment program and helped me recover from drugs. I was put on probation for five years. I have been off probation about eight months now. Donna helped me see how I could fight the urge for drugs and encouraged me to volunteer to help others when community service was made part of my probation. Because of her and my family and friends, I was able to get my son back. It has been six years now and I thank God and Donna and the drug rehab center I went to every day that I can hold my son in my arms and put him to bed every night.
