My name is Jennifer and I’m an addict. I grew up in a Hollywood family, a sickeningly sweet lifestyle yet a bit jaded. I never yearned for anything material, we had it all. I was given opportunities in life that many others will never have and yet I still chose the path of sheer destruction.... My father’s job had him living mostly in Tokyo and traveling the world until he retired. My mother accompanied him regularly. Being adopted and the youngest of four daughters, I was often left at the Encino residence (a home so big intercoms were used to communicate) with the housekeepers and having pains of loneliness were regular for me as my sisters were older and living their own full lives as well. I lost myself in episodes of “I Love Lucy” and was determined to be just like Lucy, crazy and fun. Well, the antics did begin for me around the age of 13. I started smoking pot and drinking and by the time I was 16 I had a full blown cocaine habit. Our family by this time lived in our Newport Beach home and somehow I scraped by and graduated from high school.
This period of my life was not sacred as I stole cars, credit cards, did massive amounts of drugs and ran away to Las Vegas. I traveled to the Far East with my family after graduation and after months of being away I decided to return home alone. I lived in our Newport house and often entertained with cocaine, beer, marijuana & mushrooms. I had a job at a local Diner and many of my restaurant friends partied too. In the next few years I made myself extremely sick because of my using. I lost 4 pregnancies to include 3 major surgeries and told my chances of having children were less than 5%. I was dating the manager of the diner I worked in and he was unaware of the severity of my using as I kept it hidden from him. It was getting worse with the latest news from the medical world. I just wanted to melt away…On my 21st birthday that manager & I went to Mexico and by the grace of God I got pregnant, we got married 8 weeks later and within the next 4 years I had 3 beautiful children. I was 25 years old with 3 kids under the age of 4 and fighting my disease alone. I had no idea what was going on with me and no tools to combat the noise in my head. In 1991 I got sober. During this time I divorced the father of my children and married two more times.
I went to college, obtained my CADC II, opened a recovery home for women and landed a spot on a local cable channel hosting a talk show. I got engaged yet again to a famous Yankee who I interviewed on my show. He was also sober and life was a grand whirlwind of massive amounts of merriment! He was diagnosed with cancer and died shortly thereafter. Not utilizing what recovery tools I had, I drank at his death and I drank a whole bunch. I ran from AA and started a new so I wouldn’t be bothered while drinking. I got a 9 to 5 job and a nanny for the kids. One night after coming home drunk from happy hour I was met by my nanny’s boyfriend who I noticed had a bindle of something in his top chest pocket. I asked for what I thought was a line of cocaine but to my surprise was not. It was Meth Amphetamine. Six weeks later I had fired that nanny and married her drug dealing boyfriend. Life quickly went further into a dark abyss and I lost everything. My 3 beautiful children went to live with their Dad and for the next several years Meth Amphetamine controlled my life, took my soul and left me heartless. I committed crimes and lived in seedy motels, addicted, scared and once again alone.
Finally by the grace of God I was arrested for the last time. Fourteen felonies to face and no one to bail me out, I sat in jail awaiting my fate. After numerous turns of events while detained, I was given the number to South Coast Counseling. I called and once released from jail I was given the privilege to move in. My sober life, my sober foundation, my recovery tools all began to flourish while living in South Coast Counseling. My life completely changed and has remained incredible and clean because of this opportunity. My children, now young adults also came back into my life. As this disease is a family one, my middle daughter was also stricken by addictions’ ugly doom. She now is also an alumnus of South Coast Counseling and remains happy and clean.
The amazing experience of living at South Coast gave me the strongest sober and spiritual foundation I’ve ever known and I see this happening for others too. Seeing others grow and experience sober living at South Coast is truly an honor and amazement for me. We all have so much fun together living our new sober lives, its implausible! Over five years have passed since I walked through South Coast’s threshold and I now live a life of pure joy.
