The Hope Was Lost For Jess | A Sobriety Story

This is Jess's recovery story: 9 years sober after a near-fatal suicide attempt that her 10-year-old daughter found her after. Jess was a sober veteran with eight years in the Air Force, a stay-at-home mom of three, and quietly drowning in prescription pill addiction. After a medical retirement, doctors prescribed her enough Percocet, methadone, fentanyl, and Ambien to numb out a whole family. The Ambien addiction was the worst of it. She'd take one as soon as the kids left for school and sleep her life away. When she ran out, she drank. On June 2, 2016, she hit rock bottom and took every pill in her medicine cabinet. Her daughter came home from school sick that day and found her unconscious. Six months later, after a second crisis, she finally went to a recovery house in York, Pennsylvania. She lost her 12-year marriage. She lost custody of her kids. Getting sober after losing custody was the hardest part of her recovery from prescription opiates. Today she has 9 years sober, all three kids back in her life, and is five months from a PhD in psychology. She's a sober mom, a sober veteran, and almost a doctor. What does 9 years sober actually feel like? How does a stay-at-home mom end up addicted to prescription pills? How do you forgive yourself in recovery for what your kids saw? If you're looking for real stories of moms who got sober, this is one of them. Timestamps 0:00 - She Swallowed Every Pill in the Cabinet 1:00 - Molested at 4, Memories Buried for 11 Years 4:21 - Running From Pain Into the Military 7:52 - The Assault She Hid From Everyone for 15 Years 16:47 - Fentanyl, Methadone & 120 Percocets a Month 17:35 - Blackout Drunk on Ambien — Driving, Cooking, Gone 31:20 - Her 10-Year-Old Daughter Found Her Dying 37:01 - A Knife, a Child & the Final Breaking Point 45:46 - "Go to Treatment or Be Homeless" 59:57 - The Question That Changed Everything 70:06 - From Victim to Survivor — Almost 9 Years Sober In this episode: The childhood trauma she buried for years How a prescription for pain became a full-blown addiction The exact moment her daughter walked in Why she had to leave home to actually get sober The shift from victim to survivor